Distraction
by YourPinkDiary
Summary: No matter how you try to forget them, some people just find themselves in your life over and over again. Kurt was the last person Blaine expected to be on the other end of that call.
1. Prologue

**Disclaimer: I only wish I owned Glee.**

**The Klaine ship kidnapped me, forced me on board and demanded I stay. The whole time I kept trying to tell them I was a willing participant. To prove it, here is this fanfiction. **

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He flung an arm over his eyes, to shield them from the sunlight forcing its way through the closed blinds. It lit up the room in a dull glow. It was Monday morning and he was awake before his alarm. He suppressed a groan and rolled onto his side, desperate to get in another few minutes of sleep at least.

There was movement in the bed next to him. The figure shifted and rolled over, until an arm was snaking its way around his waist, the figure pulling themselves up against him.

"I know you're awake." The voice was husky, coated with sleep.

A kiss was placed gently on his shoulder.

"I don't want to be." He pried his eyes open and reached for his phone on the bedside table. 7:04, exactly twenty-six minutes before he actually had to get up.

The hand against his stomach was slowly tracing random patterns. "Maybe I can make it worth it." This time, the voice was intentionally sultry.

Blaine brought his hand up and still the one against him. "No."

There was a sigh and the figure moved away from him, to the other side of the bed. Now, no longer able to deny that he was actually awake he forced himself to sit up. He looked at the figure next to him, their back turned, and now buried under the covers, only dark hair, and a glimpse of a caramel skinned shoulder could be seen. He couldn't quite recall when, or how, it had all started, but he disgusted himself if he thought about it too much. So he just didn't think about it. He went through the motions day by day, not letting his thoughts dwell on this and instead put everything into work.

Work which… he had to go to today.

He pulled himself out of bed and headed to the closest, rummaging around for something to wear. He missed the days of a school uniform. He didn't have to worry if his tie was matching his shirt properly, or if he was wearing the right sort of jacket (the fact that he worried at all was proof that sometimes, when a person wears off on you it just sticks, even if you'd rather it didn't).

"Blaine."

He turned. The figure in his bed sat up, clutching the covers to their chest.

"What?" He did his best to hide the irritation in his voice.

"When are you going to admit this is official?"

"That what is official?"

"Our relationship. I've only been home once this week, and that was to pick up extra clothes."

He could feel every muscle in his body tense at the mere idea of what was being suggested. "This isn't a relationship."

"Then what is it?"

"A distraction."

He didn't give the girl, Melinda, another look before slamming the bathroom door behind him.

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**A/N: Ok, **

**1. Don't kill me! **

**2. Chillax this is 100 percent absolutely definitely a Klaine fic. **

**3. No, Blaine's not bi (definitely not; read the next chapter once I put it up). Things will be explained further down the track. Kind of. Sort of. I don't know. Melinda kind of forced her way into this fic. Don't hate on her though, she turns out to be pretty cool. I know that much. **

**4. If you're intrigued, you should _alert this and leave a review_ telling me why you alerted this fic. **


	2. Chapter One

**Disclaimer: If Glee were mine it'd be on every day of the week. Not just once. **

**A?N: Thank sooo much for all the alerts, and for the reviews! I really appreciate it :) also, I'm sorry this chapter feels a little choppy and jumpy and stuff. There seemed to be no other way to get it out. **

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Winter was steadily approaching. It was only the beginning of October, but the days were getting cooler, scarfs weren't looking so out of place anymore, and under the thin cotton of his cardigan his skin had goosebumps. He threaded his way through the masses on the sidewalk to get to his building, clutching his Starbucks in his hand. New York was an easy city to feel lost in. People didn't talk. They were focused on their destination and you were lucky if you got so much as an 'excuse me' as they pushed past you to get there.

He was relieved when he finally reached the familiar sliding glass doors.

"Good morning Mr Anderson."

Blaine rolled his eyes at the security guard. "Nathan, how many times do I have to say it? Call me Blaine."

Nathan nodded apologetically. "Right, sorry sir."

Blaine shook his head and headed to the elevator. He scanned his card and waited for the doors to open for him. The record label he worked for was small. They had a few mildly successful acts, but no big names attached. And he liked it that way. The money was steady, and the work was… mostly enjoyable enough. In another lifetime he'd have longed to be the one in the studio, behind the mic, rather than the sound desk he frequently found himself at instead. But that was just that… another lifetime. A different Blaine.

The doors of the elevator finally opened to his floor. As he stepped out, their always cheery receptionist greeted him.

"Good morning Blaine."

"Hey Cassie."

"Oh, I just put a bunch of demo's on your desk."

He ran a hand through his mop of curls and scrunched up his face at the thought of spending the morning listening to a bunch of demo tracks of young kids who thought they were going to be bigger than The Beatles.

Cassie laughed. "I'm sure it won't be that bad."

"We'll swap jobs for a day and then you can see how much you like it."

"Please, you wouldn't know what to do with half the phone calls I get."

He smiled and muttered a quick "See you later," as her attention was diverted by a ringing phone. He walked through the office muttering short good mornings to people before finally sitting down at his desk. Sure enough, in his in-tray was a pile of CDs. He slumped forward, letting his forehead hit the desk with a solid thud.

He would have been happier to stay in bed all morning. And he probably would have if it weren't for, well, _her_ and her often convincing dark eyes. But he wasn't in his warm, comfortable bed. He was at work, determined to ignore the complete mess his personal life (or what was left of it) had become, and ready to face another long tedious day planning to avoid listening to those CDs for as long as he possibly could.

With a heavy sigh he logged into his email. Thirty new messages to sort through… it was going to take a while.

**X X X**

"Anything good?"

Blaine glanced up from the email he was typing (_Thank you, but your sound isn't quite what we're looking for right now_) Scott, the labels executive producer, gestured to the pile of listened to demos.

He shook his head. "Not in that pile." He picked up one disc he thrown to the side. It had stood out from the rest immediately. No amateur looking home-made cover, no attached headshot, just a plain CD in a case with Alicia Silver and a phone number scrawled on it in sharpie. "There might be some potential in this one. Unique voice at any rate."

"Great." Scott plucked the CD from his hands. "So, do you remember Tyler Blake?"

The proper question was how could Blaine forget Tyler Blake. The twenty-three year old had been signed to the label last year. He was tall, hair bleached blonde and in a sweeping fringe style that should have died out years ago, but was still somehow managing to hang on by a thread. He was the exact stereotype of a '_hot_ up and coming musician' and had a voice Blaine resented because someone with the arrogant confidence Tyler Blake had shouldn't have such a hypnotising voice. Yeah… he remembered the guy. Blaine just smiled and nodded.

"Yes."

"Well, he's listened to some of your work with other artists, and different sample tracks and what-not and wants to work with you on a couple of tracks for his album."

"Oh." His eyebrows shot up in genuine surprise. "Really?"

"Yes. So, we're going to have a meeting over lunch today. Twelve-thirty at Michelangelo's."

"Yeah, sure. I'll be there."

An hour later Blaine found himself staring at his reflection in the bathroom. He looked at his hair and scrunched up his nose. It was a curly, floppy mess that went in every which direction. He ran a hand through it, scrunching at the curls as if they would miraculously straighten themselves out. He missed the days of solidly gelling each strand into place. It looked so much neater and presentable and not so… well what it was.

Why was he nervous anyway?

This was nothing he hadn't done before. It wasn't completely uncommon for one of the artists signed to them to want to work with him. Or for Scott to assign a couple of tracks for him to produce. Yet, the thought of this lunch made his mouth go dry and his heart beat erratically. Just because it was Tyler Blake, and just because Tyler Blake was attractive, confidently arrogant, and had a killer smile, didn't mean he should be nervous.

Because he was not attracted to Tyler Blake like some silly schoolgirl. That would be ridiculous.

"Snap out of it Blaine."

He deliberately turned away from the mirror. Because he didn't care. He didn't care what kind of impression he made on Tyler Blake at lunch. It was all strictly business.

**X X X**

"Something came up, and I can't make it."

"So… lunch is cancelled?"

Scott let out a barking laugh. "Heavens no Blaine. I just won't be there. I'm sure you won't really need me anyway. Tyler is just going to share the vision of the album with you, and then go into more detail about the songs he wants to work with you on."

Sure, it sounded simple enough.

"I don't know why you're worried about this, you've done it before. It'll be fine. I'll meet up with the two of you later in the afternoon."

"Yeah, ok. See you then." Blaine pocketed his phone and continued walking. He wanted to prolong the dreaded lunch. So walking three blocks on the chance he might be a little late didn't seem like such an insane idea. He kept his arms folded over his chest as he expertly weaved in an out of masses of people. The sunny morning had disappeared, and an overcast sky had taken its place, but he kept his sunglasses firmly on his face.

"Have you looked in a mirror today?"

Behind his sunglasses, Blaine glared at the blonde in front of him. "Hi, I'm Blaine Anderson, pleasure to meet you." He forced out, ignoring the comment from the younger man.

Tyler laughed. "We've met before Blaine, I know who you are. But really… what's with the glasses? And… don't get me started on that cardigan."

Blaine looked down at the maroon cotton cardigan he had on. He couldn't see anything inherently wrong with it. But then, fashion had never really been his thing. That was an area best left to…

Well, other people and magazines (just to stop that thought going down a dangerous road).

"Shall we go on in then?" Tyler asked.

"Uh… yeah."

They were directed to their seats. As soon as the waitress left, Blaine took several giant gulps of his water. Tyler opened his menu.

"Have you eaten here before?" he asked. "I'd recommend the ravioli."

"Yeah, it uh... it's good." he didn't want to small talk. Really didn't. In the last five minutes he'd already had to push away less than appropriate thoughts (it was going to be a _long_ lunch).

He didn't want to do this. Not again. Feelings were messy and unpredictable and left you too vulnerable. He didn't want small talk. He didn't want more reasons to find the guy sitting in front of him incredibly attractive. He wasn't even gay! Blaine knew for a fact he had a girlfriend.

"Are you ready to order?" the waitress asked politely.

They quickly placed their orders. Once she was gone, Blaine thought he would jump in and start the conversation they were there to have, mostly so he could safely avoid small talk.

"So, what's the album like?" he asked.

Tyler raised his eyebrows a little, but casually. "Well, it's very me, you know. I think if you," he leant forward slightly. "Got to know me, you'd understand it better."

Blaine smiled politely. "How about, instead, we think of myself as your audience. People aren't going to get to have a Q and A with you before they buy your album. So tell me, what's the sound like?"

Tyler settled back in his chair, Blaine saw (with a little satisfaction) he looked a little disgruntled.

"It's got that indy, acoustic vibe to it."

This time Blaine was the one raising his eyebrows. Tyler chuckled.

"What?" he asked.

"Nothing, nothing." Blaine recovered, forcing his neutral face back on. "Just... pegged you as more of a pop artist."

Tyler shrugged. "Yeah, well... anyway, the song I want you to work with me on is appropriate I think. I really want to make sure the emotion is conveyed and I don't know anyone else who would actually get it."

"What's the song about?" Blaine reached for another drink of water.

"It's about a guy and wanting to tell him how you feel, but not being sure if he... you know... goes that way."

Blaine choked mid-swallow. Tyler just watched slightly amused as Blaine struggled to regather his composure.

"Sorry. You um, you caught me off guard there. I thought you had a girlfriend."

He nodded. "I do. It's a song I wrote about a year ago. But it's good so I'm recording it."

"Right. So um... you're…?" The words weren't coming out properly, his mind was still trying to get around the thought alone. He resented the way his heart was pounding a little harder in his chest at the thought of Tyler being attracted to guys. Potentially attracted to… him. He tried desperately to quickly clear his head of the thoughts because that was a dangerous and slippery slope.

A smirk crossed Tyler's face. "Bi? You betchya. Everyone deserves a chance at Tyler Blake. This," he gestured to his face. "Is far too handsome to limit to one sex. You know?"

Blaine really didn't know (well, he definitely knew about the Tyler having a handsome face part, that was hard to ignore) but for whatever reason he was nodding along. "So can I ask… what made you think I was right to produce the track?"

"Well, you're good at it. I don't know why you don't go into producing full time. But also, I figured you'd relate to the song being that you're gay at all."

He was only mildly surprised. He knew people at work knew, but it was never something brought up, which he was thankful for. He knew no one cared… but he didn't want to face constant questions like 'why don't you have a boyfriend?'. Because the people he worked with bigger gossips than thirteen year old girls.

"Right. Silly me for not working that out." He said deadpanned. Thankful for the sudden interruption of their food being brought out to them.

The conversation steered back to Tyler's album and everything he wanted it to be. Blaine was thankful that the topic of his personal life wasn't pressed any further because that was something he kept very distant from his work. Not that he really had a personal life. A college graduate basically living in his apartment in some undefined, never spoken about, twisted 'relationship' didn't count as a personal life. It just meant he was more screwed up than he thought, and was too beyond caring anymore.

Still, he avoided direct eye contact for the rest of the lunch. He didn't like the way hazel gaze of the guy sitting in front of him made his stomach flip over.

**X X X**

There was a loud clatter as Blaine quickly dumped the contents of his pockets on the kitchen counter. He was pretty sure there was leftover Chinese sitting the fridge, and he was ready to sit in front of Survivor and forget the day ever happened.

"Hey babe."

He jumped and spun around, to see Melinda sitting on a stool at the bench.

"Mel, don't sneak up on me like that. I forgot you were here."

Actually, he'd been hoping she'd have left and gone back to her own neglected apartment.

"How was your day."

He shrugged. "Fine. Nothing too interesting." _Only realising I'm crushing harder than I've crushed since I was seventeen on one of our artists… I'm twenty-five, I thought I was over the crushing thing._ He pulled open the fridge, hunting once again for that leftover Chinese food.

"Oh. I was wondering… did you want to see a movie tonight?"

He grinned in victory when his eyes fell on the container of Orange Chicken. "Huh?" He turned back around to face the girl leaning over the bench. "Oh… no. I really just want to stay in tonight." He put the food on to heat up.

Melinda sighed. "Fine, whatever. I'm still going to go out."

"Do whatever you want." He barely glanced at her as she grabbed her things and left, and he found himself relieved at the prospect of having a few hours by himself.

While he waited for his chicken he switched the TV on, and just as he was settled down comfortably to eat, he heard the distinct sound of his phone vibrating against the granite bench top. He sighed heavily and muted the TV, before getting up.

He hesitated at the unfamiliar number calling him. But ended up swiping his finger over the 'answer' button.

"Hello, Blaine speaking."

He was met with silence.

"Hello?"

There was silence for a few moments longer, and he was about to hang up. Then there was a single, choked sob from the other end.

"Blaine?"

He dropped the phone.

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**A/N: I know right? **

**Well, if you want to know what's going on... I think you should _review_. And I'll try and stop ending things on cliffhangers. **


	3. Chapter Two

**Disclaimer: I'd have better things to do with my time if I owned Blaine. **

**A/N: Firstly, I'm completely overwhelmed with the response from last chapter. **_**Thank you so much**_** to every single person that not only reviewed, but alerted this story. I've been a bit stressed about this chapter for the past couple of days because I don't know if it really lives up. I'm not good at writing about drunk people. Advanced apologies. **

**Originally, Blaine was going to be more angsty, but judging from the BIOTA previews, he's a bit of a happy drunk, so I wanted to try and find the medium between them.**

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The next five minutes were long, painful and excruciating. He couldn't think, he couldn't breathe. The small whimper of a voice played in his head over and over.

He could ignore it. He could walk away from his phone, leave it there and never again think about what had just happened. It would be easier wouldn't it? Surely the 'what ifs' wouldn't plague his nightmares.

He'd only said one word. Just the one and... like that all Blaine could see were those eyes. Bright and brimming with emotion, a swirl of colours, but to Blaine they were mostly blue. And he'd sounded so... so...

Yes, the 'what ifs' _would _plague his nightmares forever.

Slowly Blaine bent down and picked up his phone. He was a little startled and unprepared to see the normal home screen. The call had ended. He didn't know whether his hand slipped against the end button, or if the boy on the other end had ended it.

Man. He wasn't a boy. They weren't eighteen anymore.

He brought up the recent calls page and hit dial before he could over think it. Before he could realise what he was actually doing and stop himself.

It rang.

And rang, and rang.

By now his heart was pounding in his chest. He didn't know what he was doing, or what was going on. What if he actually picked up? What would he say?

... Why had he called in the first place?

"Hi, you've reached Kurt Hummel. I'm busy, obviously. If you're as fabulous as I am please leave a message. Oh, and Douglas, take a freaking hint! Ok?"

There was a beep and then nothing.

"I... Uh..."

He quickly hung up and threw his phone down before he could make another rash decision. What had he been thinking? He was sure the boy (man now... _man_) was fine. Probably.

Hopefully.

A glass of wine was what he really needed.

**X X X**

Melinda ran a hand through her hair as she checked the time on her phone. It was eleven thirty, Blaine would most likely be asleep so she could sneak in and avoid conversation. Which right now was what she wanted.

The thought of going back to her own place occurred to her, but the last time she'd done that, about a week ago, Blaine had called her in a panic at 5am thinking she had been kidnapped. She still didn't know why he'd reacted that way. It was the only time he'd shown any inkling of even liking her at all. Until that moment, she'd been certain she could vanish from the planet and he wouldn't even notice.

Yet she continued to cling on to him. She didn't know why. He wasn't really her usual type, he was gentle and had kind (though sometimes with a hint of a tortured past) eyes. Sure, he was distant, very distant. But that meant he wasn't about to go prying into her past. She was used to hard, rough, tattooed and a risk of waking up to find out they'd been arrested.

And even though he'd never outwardly said it she knew she wasn't his type. At all. As in, she was the exact opposite of his type. Sometimes she wished he would just say it. Say he wasn't actually interested in her. So she could find an excuse to leave. But he never did. And for some reason, she stayed.

The one thing they had in common was their determination to torture themselves. It was something they both seemed to be masters at.

The lock on his apartment door was dodgy. One of those things that was forever on the to do list, but never seemed to get done. She had to jiggle the key quite vigorously to get it to work.

Just as she was about to open the door it swung open of it's own accord.

"Melly!"

Her eyes widened and for several long seconds she was utterly speechless. What the...

Blaine stood in front of her, his shirt was half unbuttoned, his tie undone yet still somehow hanging around his neck. His hair was... well, she now had proof it could get messier than it was in the morning, it was sticking up at odd angles, no longer tidy curls, but just one big frizz. His eyes were bloodshot red and he had a goofy, lopsided grin on his face.

"Um... what the hell?" she managed.

"I'm having a party." he wrapped an arm around her shoulders and steered her further into the apartment.

"Really?" she asked. She was treading cautiously. She'd never seen Blaine drunk. In fact, she'd never seen him have so much as a sip of alcohol. She had no idea what he was like under the influence. "Where are all the people?"

"Don't need 'em." his words were slurring together and Melinda rolled her eyes. She quickly shrugged him off her (because he was taller and larger than her and had started to lean heavily on her) he stumbled a little before he managed to straighten himself up.

"What happened to you?" she asked.

"Nothing." he turned and stared at her. "I love you. But whoa, _whoa_..." his eyes went wide. "Not like _that_. Definitely not like that. You're… you know, and have… stuff." He gestured at her vaguely, as if it explained what he meant. "But you're nice, and I like your hair." he picked up a chunk of her hair and let his fingers slide over it, his eyes glazed over. "How come it's always so shiny? I hate my hair."

She grabbed his hand and forced him to let go of her hair. "Lets get you to bed, yeah?"

"No!" he said firmly wrenching himself away from her. "No." he took a large sip from the wine bottle in his hand. Melinda stepped in and grabbed it from him, he wouldn't let go.

"Blaine." she spoke slowly, as if to a child. Only because that's exactly what he was behaving like. She couldn't help the thought that if she'd known Blaine would be such a curious drunk she would have tried to encourage him to drink earlier. It was a little awful, but as frustrated as she was at him, she couldn't help but be a little amused. (Truth told she'd always feared he'd be the type to get overly emotional and start crying.) "Please give me the bottle. I just want to fill it up."

He considered this for a moment. "Fine."

"So um, I left you eating last nights Chinese." she started, pouring the rest of the wine, though there wasn't much left, down the sink. "What happened between then and now?"

He gave her a dopey grin. "I had a party," he said. "See, I called Kurt, cause he's lots of fun and..." Blaine trailed off. "No, that's not right." he turned from her, his brow creased in a deep puzzle. "I called him though," he was muttering. "Yeah, cause I couldn't leave a message and…"

"Who's Kurt?" she asked casually. In the year she'd known Blaine a Kurt had never been brought up. Not that he spoke much about his past. But when he did it there were usually tales of two guys called Wes and David. Never a Kurt.

"Huh?" Blaine turned back around to her.

"Who's Kurt?"

"Kurt..." a dreamy look crossed his face. "Kurt is like an angel. No, really. His skin and his eyes, he's so delicate and his voice... It's like an angel put its voice in him or something." he looked directly into Melinda's eyes. "I love Kurt. Not like I love you though. I love him like sometimes I really want to just-"

Melinda rushed forward and clamped her hand over his mouth. "I'm going to stop you right there before you say something you regret."

Blaine started shaking his head madly, trying to pull away from her hand, which she kept firmly in place. Then, there was something warm, and wet against her hand. She yanked it back.

"Did you just lick me?"

He smiled, then winced. "My head hurts."

"Lying down will help with that." She gingerly took his hand in hers and pulled him with her to the bedroom.

There was a chuckle. "This could be suggestive."

"If you weren't completely off your face." She muttered. She dropped his hand and quickly searched through his cupboard. Once she found what she was looking for she tossed the track pants and shirt he usually wore to bed at him. "Get changed."

"In front of you?" His eyes were wide in alarm.

"Bathroom's that way. Don't you dare lock the door."

Several moments later his head poked out from behind the door.

"Buttons." He said simply.

Melinda sighed and walked towards him as he opened the door wider. Only the last four buttons on his shirt remained done up. Unable to explain why, she was unable to look him in the eye has she gingerly reached out and started to undo the buttons for him. As she reached the last one he placed a hand on her waist, his skin was warm through the material of her shirt and she stopped breathing.

"I don't know why you're here," his voice was barely above a whisper. "I don't know why I let you be here."

She lifted her head to meet his gaze. "I don't know why I'm here either." She admitted honestly.

"Jeans."

"Huh?"

He moved his hand from her and gestured vaguely. "I can't…"

She glanced briefly down at his pants and quickly shook her head. "No. You're on your own for that."

**X X X**

His head hurt. It was like someone kept hitting it hard with a hammer and it wouldn't stop. He was sure he could actually feel his brain swimming around in there. He clutched at his forehead and groaned. There weren't enough painkillers in the world to help how he was feeling.

Why? Why was he…

The phone call. The memory came back to him too clearly. So much so in fact, he suddenly wished he could rewind time back about ten seconds and go back to focusing on the pain.

"I see you're finally up."

Blaine peeked an eye open to see Melinda setting a glass of water on his bedside table.

"What? What time is it?"

"Eleven."

He startled and suddenly bolted up. Then quickly clutched at his head as the sudden movement emphasised his headache. "What?"

She sat down on the edge of the bed. "Relaxed. I called your work. Told them you'd come down with something and wouldn't be in today."

"Oh."

He reached for the glass and emptied it in several quick gulps. "Aspirin?" He asked.

Melinda gestured to the bottle of pills on the table that he'd overlooked. He quickly grabbed and few and swallowed them dry.

Melinda stared at him with large brown eyes. He just knew she was hesitating to ask him something. He also knew he'd rather recover from the awful hangover and then forget anything ever happened. Yet he found himself prompting her on with a "Yeah?"

"I know we don't… that we're not the most the functional people, but… something made you crack last night."

Once again, those bright eyes flashed in his minds eye. The last time he'd ever gotten to look at them. Tears shone at the surface, unshed, and they were such a vivid blue… he screwed his face up and forced the image away. Blaine ran his fingers through his hair several times. "Just work stuff." He settled on finally.

She raised a sceptical eyebrow. "Work has stressed you out before but it's never driven you to drink yourself to insanity before. And while you were drunk you didn't mention work once. You kept rambling about some guy called Kurt."

He could feel the blood drain from his face.

Melinda smirked. "Apparently you love him."

"Mel, I…"

She held a hand up stopping him. "Don't. Don't even try. I already know we're the two most dysfunctional people in this city. Which is really saying something since this is New York. I have to get ready for work since I start at twelve. But, here." She tossed his phone onto his lap. "I'm sorry that I pried, but there's a voicemail you might want to hear. Once you're feeling a little better."

She gave his leg a pat and stood up. "I don't usually say crap like this but… I kind of do care about you. And I'll…" She grimaced a little. "I'll listen if you need to get some of that stuff you've been holding in out."

For the next hour he stared at his phone. The stupid tiny device had suddenly become the root of his problems. If it didn't exist he wouldn't have sought to numb his emotions last night with the help of a bottle of Merlot. He wouldn't have the pounding headache he did, and he would likely be at work resisting the urge to shamelessly flirt with an annoyingly attractive blonde singer.

He heard the door of the apartment click shut in the distance and knew Melinda had left. He brought up the voicemails, the most recent one from a number that hadn't been put into his phone. His thumb hovered over the play button. His heart was pounding irrationally. He counted silently in his head.

One…

Two…

Three…

"Ugh, what am I doing? I'm such a stalker. It's Kurt. Sorry Blaine. I was just… shocked that this was actually still your number. I uh… I don't know why you called me back and I… oh I don't know what I'm doing right now. This might be vain but, I know you're prone to, to worry and I wanted to let you know I'm fine. I'm sorry for calling you in the first place, and well, I'm going to just forget this momentary lapse in judgement ever happened. Um, bye."

Blaine threw his phone down in a fit of rage. Well that was just great. Kurt could go on with his life and completely forget about him. Yet now Blaine, who had just spent the last six years of his life trying to erase every memory of the boy, was never _ever_ going to be able to 'just forget' (and worst of all he now had his number… who knew what incredibly stupid thing he might resort to now?). He didn't know how Kurt Hummel's brain worked, but his didn't have that function.

"I hate you so much."

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**I don't think that counts as a cliffhanger… **

**If you enjoyed it, I'm thinking you should **_**review**_**. Otherwise I won't know and could just assume people hate this story.**


	4. Chapter Three

**Disclaimer: Not mine. Sad. **

**A/N: Sorry the update took so long, I've a couple of busy days recently, and sorry this chapter is a little shorter (but there's more Kurt so… yay!). It's just… putting anything else into it would have felt forced. So I left it as is. Also, just want to say, I've quite literally never written slash before so… it might be kind of crap (some parts of this chapter) I don't know. I really want to hear your thoughts on it.**

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"_I don't think she realised that we're on a date... or if she did, she didn't seem to care."_

_Blaine crinkled his brow in a frown. "What are you talking about?"_

_"She was flirting with you. Quite hard too."_

_"Really?"_

_Kurt rolled his eyes at the way Blaine was genuinely surprised. He hadn't noticed the way the waitress had patted his shoulder and let her hand linger there longer than appropriate, practically shoved her chest in his face and fluttered her eyelashes so much Kurt had started to think maybe she actually had honesty poked her eye with eyeliner._

_"Yes, really."_

_"Huh," Blaine turned in his seat to peer at the girl now pouring out water for another table. "Could be worse, I suppose." He said._

_"What?" Kurt asked._

_Blaine only shrugged. "If some girl is going to be flirting with me, it might as well be someone who's mildly attractive. For a girl anyway.__"_

_Kurt laughed and shook his head at his boyfriend._

_The next time the waitress came over (to unnecessarily ask them if she could refill their water glasses... that they'd barely taken a sip out of) Blaine made sure to openly grab Kurt's hand on the table. He gave the girl the most charming smile he could._

_"We're alright thanks." he said._

_She stared at their hands her eyes widened a little in recognition. "Uh, ok then. I'll uh, yep. Just let me know if you need anything."_

_It wasn't until she was well out of earshot Kurt let out a giggle. Blaine smiled as well and didn't let go of Kurt's hand until their food actually came and he needed it to eat._

_There was a small argument over who would pay the bill, which was settled only by Blaine giving the waitress his card before Kurt had even realised what had happened._

_They walked slowly to the car holding hands taking their time, both firmly avoiding the inevitable conversation. As they reached the car Kurt suddenly grabbed Blaine at the waist as pushed him up against the car. The small squeak of surprised didn't get a chance to escape his throat as Kurt captured his lips in the most desperate kiss he'd ever experienced._

_It was an almost violent collision of lips, teeth and tongue as they grabbed at each other both putting their despair and every word of departure that had been avoided the entire day into the kiss._

_Kurt pulled away first. He drew in a shaky breath. One hand was on Blaine's waist, the other rested against his neck._

_"Come back to my place." his voice was a shaky whisper._

_Blaine shook his head. "I... we can't."_

_"My parents' aren't home," he said. "Finn's already gone."_

_"We shouldn't."__ He said weakly. _

_Kurt met his gaze. The dark lighting highlighted the green in his eyes. Blaine saw in that moment Kurt had his guard down completely. There was longing and desperation in his eyes and a lust that Blaine hadn't seen before that did ... _things_... to him (Kurt was really going to be the end of him if all it took was a look)._

_"This is the last time I'm going to see you for a month." he kissed Blaine's jaw._

_Blaine's grip on his boyfriend's hips tightened. "S-Skype." he breathed out as Kurt sucked gently on his neck._

_"Not the same." his breath was hot against his neck. "We'll be on opposite sides of the country." Kurt let his hand ever so lightly trail down Blaine's chest to his hips where he started untucking the blue shirt he had on from his jeans. "Starting tomorrow. Please. Just tonight."_

_He might have said nodded, or said yes, Blaine couldn't actually remember because all of a sudden he was consumed by the feeling of Kurt's mouth over his. Of Kurt's body pressed against his._

_Somehow they got in the car and drove to Kurt's place. He wasn't really bothered with committing that to memory. It was the events that followed he was more concerned with. He knew, without a doubt, he would never be able to forget it if he tried._

**X X X**

"Blaine's going to go bald if he doesn't stop trying to pull out his hair."

Startled, Blaine's elbow slipped off the edge of the desk, he lost his balance and in an effort to regain it his hand hit the soundboard causing buttons and dials to be knocked out of place. Thankfully, before any eardrums were blasted, Tyler had stopped playing.

"What's up with you?" he spoke into the microphone.

Blaine stopped recording and Tyler came out of the isolation booth.

"You're being really spacey." he sat in a chair next to Blaine. "First you didn't show up at all yesterday, which by the way, everyone was shocked at because you're not the type to take a day off. Today you're clearly on another planet."

Blaine sighed and ran his hand through his hair, yet again. "I'm good really," he said, not quite able to believe his own words. "Sorry. We'll start again. Sing the proper line this time."

Tyler smirked. "Dunno, I think the new lyric is pretty catchy. But really man, you sure?" he placed a hand on his shoulder and Blaine had to suppress a shudder at the sudden warmth that seeped through the cotton of his shirt.

"Yeah," he nodded. "Really, I'm fine. Get back in there and we'll start again with the vocals."

Tyler removed his hand and went back into the studio. It wasn't long until his smooth voice filled the place again. His voice had a distinct, almost jazz like, sound to it that gave his music an interesting spin. Blaine wondered if he'd ever considered music with that kind of sound. As Tyler started, Blaine's thoughts frustratingly drifted back to Kurt.

Tried as he did, he couldn't get the voice out of his head.

He'd tortured himself playing the message over and over again. It was some strange combination of just desperately needing to hear him speak and not being able to shed the gut feeling there was more to the message than he'd initially thought.

He'd thought to call back. But couldn't bring himself to.

There had been a time where he'd known Kurt better than he'd known himself. Which was why Blaine was sure he was the only person who would realize Kurt's voice was ever so subtly deeper than it had been when they were teenagers. It was how he recognized the slight shake in his voice when he said he was fine. The way he said _'you're prone to worry'_ with an emphasis that seemed to say that Blaine actually should worry.

After the seventh time through listening to it Blaine knew he wasn't delirious. It wasn't hope that making him hear those things. Because any excuse to delete the message and forget about it, Blaine was willing to take. But his gut said otherwise. The tortured sob and shaky whisper of his name from two nights ago was already invading his nightmares as his mind thought up of all the possibilities that could have resulted in the desperate call.

"Blaine?"

He jumped suddenly and looked up to see Tyler frowning at him.

How long ago had he stopped singing?

"Alright, I think we all need a break." he said.

Tyler took off his headphones and set his guitar down.

"You're fine?" he said with raised eyebrows. "Really?"

Blaine sighed. "Look, either I'm not making it obvious, or you're just really pushy but, I don't want to talk about it. At all. Now, you're going to go and do... whatever. Get food, get a drink. I don't care. And I'm going to go and do something I know will be a massive mistake but right now I really don't care."

He brushed past the blonde, who grabbed at his wrist to stop him but Blaine quickly shook him off and left the studio. In fact, he left the building altogether. He knew what he was about to do he would probably regret very quickly, but his need to know was stronger. Once he was out on the street he started dialling.

"What are you doing?" a voice hissed.

"Kurt. Hi."

There was nothing but heavy breathing on the other end. Blaine waited with bated breath, he wondered if he should say more, but couldn't find his voice.

"Blaine. Really? What are you doing?"

His voice was still lost, and for a selfish, self-destructive moment he let himself enjoy the sound of his name slipping through Kurt's lips. Finally he sighed.

"I don't know."

"I told you not to call me."

"You knew very well I would anyway." he snapped.

"Actually, I hoped for once you would actually do something I asked."

Blaine recognized that tone. It was Kurt's 'bitch' voice. It was the Kurt that was overly defensive and difficult to reason with. The Kurt that had all walls up and wasn't letting a soul in.

"Don't," Blaine's voice was strained. "Don't talk to me like that."

"Like what?" he snapped.

"Like I'm your enemy here."

"You sort of are." but already his tone was a little softer.

"Really?" Blaine asked, he could feel his voice getting louder. How could he say that… Blaine wasn't… he wasn't the one who had cause anything. "Because you're the one who called me first. You're the one who freaked me out. You called me, crying, and then didn't answer when I called you back. What was I supposed to think? And then you call trying to convince me that you're fine and you don't want to hear from me again and that you'll just forget it ever happened. I mean really Kurt, what the _hell_? I know you knew I wouldn't believe you because I know you're not so fucking naïve to think that I can't tell when you're lying." he spat out the last words with more venom than he realized he had.

"Don't try and turn this around on me."

"Why not? All of this is your fault isn't it? I might be forgettable and _whatever_, and it must be really easy for you to carry on with your life without giving me a second thought. But you're not forgettable. You know that? I can't just _forget_ that for the first time in six years you actually spoke to me. I can't just go on with life like it's nothing. And you have no idea how frustrating it is to go six years trying and trying to forget about you only to have it shattered in a single three second phone call. So maybe next time, be a little more considerate."

There was a shaky breath. "Blaine... I... I didn't..."

"You didn't realise? Whatever. I don't care. I was going to tell you I'm here. Nothing has changed since the day we met. No matter how much I might hate you for what you've done... I'm here for you. Just, whatever happens... don't try and lie to me again."

Kurt might have started to speak again and Blaine hung up. His hands were shaking and he just couldn't take it anymore. It was all too much.


	5. Chapter Four

**Disclaimer: Not mine. It's sad.**

**A/N: 1. Sorry for the wait. Uni started back, and then I was away. Basically, life happened. On the bright side though, I got this chapter done and part of the next chapter… I just couldn't post because it was on my ipod. And while I'm on that topic I'm sorry for any mistakes, I hope I caught them all, but I more than likely didn't.**

**2. Honestly? Most of this chapter can be skimmed, it goes into a bit of detail about what happened with Kurt and Blaine and how Blaine met Mel and that, it's all necessary information, but I think the long monologues from Blaine get kinda boring quickly, if you skim, you'll get the idea without being completely bored to death. But if you like this story… I think you'll like the end of this chapter. So sit through it til then.**

**3. Also, with 67 people putting this story on alert, I'm sure we can do better than an average of 8 reviews per chapter ;), don't get me wrong, I'm stoked people review at all… but it'd be nice to hear from some of the quieter readers. Let me know if you're out there!**

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He fell into a pattern. Each day was not much different from the previous. Morning coffee, checking emails, mixing songs for Tyler, every day at seven pm Melinda would call and he would insist he was fine. He felt like he was frequently having to assure everyone he was fine.

A week slowly drifted by. His phone was permanently attached to his hand. He both hoped and dreaded it would ring at the same time. And any time it did his heart started pounding until he actually checked the screen to see who it was. Every time disappointed flooded through him. It was a feeling he quickly pushed aside before answering the call in a forced chipper voice.

Tyler, it seemed, had given up. After a couple of days of trying to make conversation with Blaine he'd finally stopped and everything was business between them. Blaine still hadn't decided if he was happy about that or not.

Melinda hadn't.

He hadn't seen her for a week. The only contact he had with her was their daily phone calls. Which were always short and forced, and every time without doubt she'd ask if he wanted to talk, and every time his answer was the same.

"There's nothing to talk about."

Even though they both knew he was lying. He knew she still dropped by the apartment, because, despite not having been shopping at all, his fridge continued to remain stocked with the essentials. He hoped one day he would be able to thank her.

Tyler finished up the last chord of the song and Blaine gave a grateful sigh.

"We'll call it a day." He said.

Tyler and the rest of the guys in the studio began packing up the equipment and Blaine made sure everything was switched off. They'd finish the rest of the song the next day, he just couldn't wait to go home and be alone.

Tyler was about to leave when he paused and turned back to face Blaine.

"Blaine."

"Yeah?"

"Whoever has done this to you isn't worth it. You realise that right?"

"You don't even know him." Blaine said before he could stop himself.

Tyler's mouth fell open in surprise and Blaine could see questions spring up in his eyes immediately.

"Just forget it." Blaine stood up and grabbed his bag. "I'll see you tomorrow."

"Oh. They didn't tell you? I have press stuff for the rest of the week. I won't be back in the studio until Monday."

Blaine shrugged. "I'll see you Monday, then."

There was a heavy disappointment that filled him, but he was already so good at pushing the feeling aside he ignored it and chose to pretend it wasn't there. What did he have to feel disappointed at anyway? Just because he wouldn't see Tyler for a couple of days… he didn't even like Tyler all that much.

The dark blue of his apartment door had never been a more welcome sight. Blaine sighed and leaned against it for a moment, before digging through his pockets for his keys.

When he entered his apartment, he was startled to find the lights on. For a moment, he tried to remember if he'd turned them off before he left that morning (and dreaded looking at the bill if that were the case), but then saw a figure curled up on the couch.

"Mel?" He rushed over to the pile of blankets, his own worries momentarily forgotten and concern spread across his face as he knelt down in front of her.

She forced herself to sit up and smiled. "Hey Blaine."

He frowned at her, she looked washed out, her hair was unkempt and greasy and she had no makeup on. She clutched a box of tissues in one hand. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing. I'm fine. I just-" She stopped and quickly turned her head to sneeze. "I think I'm coming down with something."

"Can I get you anything?" He asked.

Melinda shook her head firmly. "No. I'm fine really. I just uh… it's silly."

He raised his eyebrows at her. She gave him a sheepish smile.

"I didn't want to be alone and sick."

Blaine rested a palm on her cheek, he was shocked to find how warm her skin was, especially considering the way she was huddled under the blankets. "That's fine."

Melinda gripped his hand in hers. "Sit with me for a while?" she asked him.

"Uh, yeah sure." He moved to sit on the couch. She quickly shifted so she was huddled up against him. Blaine decided to ignore how contagious she was (and truthfully, the idea of having to take a couple of days off work if he caught something wasn't the worst thought in the world) and wrapped an arm around her pulling her closer to him.

"Oh, _now_ you decide you're a cuddler."

"What do you mean by 'now'?" He asked.

He felt her shake her head against him. "Never mind."

They sat in silence for several long minutes. Blaine was contemplating to bring up something just for conversations sake, but couldn't quite bring himself to.

"So… I'm starting to think there's never going to be an appropriate moment to bring it up…" Melinda broke the silence first.

Blaine cringed at how stuffed up her voice sounded. "To bring what up?" As the words left his mouth, it suddenly dawned on him and he started thinking of the various excuses he could use to leave. He could say he had to take a shower, or had to get himself dinner or… was really tired and wanted an early night?

"Who is Kurt?" She asked before he could use any of his excuses.

"Oh."

"It's been bugging me all week." She said. "I've never seen you so… well, so drunk for starters. But, when I brought up his name I'd never… you looked kind of terrified."

"Oh." It seemed to be the only noise that managed to escape his throat. It had been years since he'd spoken to anyone about Kurt (hell, until last week it had been years since he'd spoken _to_ Kurt).

"So?" She asked.

"We all have demons in our past." He said finally, hoping desperately to get through to her that he did _not_ want to talk about this. At all. Ever. How was he supposed to go on pretending he didn't exist if people kept insisting to bring him up?

"So… I'll tell you mine if you tell me yours?" She said with a hint of a smile.

Blaine couldn't help the small smile tugging at his lips at that. He sighed. "It's not much of a story."

"Tell it anyway."

His smile promptly fell, he tried to think of the vaguest way to tell the story, the way that would let him avoid emotions and thoughts that took years to properly bury. There wasn't one. Every muscle in his body went rigid. Melinda, felt how tense he got and looked up at him.

"It's ok Blaine." she reassured. "It can't hurt you, I swear."

"It's just... it's hard, you know?" he said. "It's like... it's this stuff I've just never spoken to anyone about. I've never wanted to… I'm not even sure if I want to right now. I'm scared I'll turn into a blubbering mess."

"I've already got the tissues." She shook the box on her hand. "Come on Blaine, maybe it'll be good for you to finally talk about it. Start with the most basic. Who is Kurt?"

"Kurt is..." he paused. "That is, he was, my high school boyfriend."

"Was it like any other high school romance? You sat next to each other in English and just _knew_ you were meant to be together? That's what it was like with my ninth grade boyfriend."

"Not quite. We met our junior year." Blaine launched into the story of the adorable, yet terrified spy. How Blaine had tried to help him, but he ended up transferring to Dalton instead, to escape his bully.

"And then you became lovers and were sneaking into each others dorms late at night?" Mel asked with a teasing smile.

"No." Blaine said bluntly. "We didn't get together until we were at McKinley."

"Kurt's school? I don't follow."

"Some events took place that ended up with Kurt moving back to McKinley High. Not long after my family ran into some trouble that meant they had to pull me out of Dalton. I'd be lying if I said transferring to McKinley had nothing to do with Kurt, I had to find a public school... and there's no way I was going back to my previous school. I figured at McKinley Kurt and I could at least face the harsh world of public high school together. We could have each others backs."

"And then you got together?"

Blaine nodded. "Eventually anyway. It was near the end of our junior year. It was one of those things that got very serious very fast. We got crap for it of course, but we had each other's backs. That and the rest of his... I mean, our Glee club really took care-

"Wait, wait, wait. Glee club?" Mel laughed.

"Yeah… what?"

"It's just... the singing, the dancing... the costumes? I can't picture you in that scene at all. Really, I'm trying and I _can't_."

"Yeah… it wasn't really 'me' I suppose. But, I'd been part of the Glee club at Dalton, which was really different. We were an A Capella group, we stayed in our uniforms and choreography was minimum. But, my point is, New Directions-

"Stopping you again. New Directions? Are you _serious_? Did they stop to think about that?"

Blaine laughed. "Now that I think about… that's hilarious. Anyway, the McKinley Glee club had our backs too. And all of that, it made our relationship stronger. Honestly, it was probably… the happiest time of my life." he trailed off. His mind went back there. Walking the halls of McKinley High with his arm around the shoulders of his boyfriend. They got a couple of stares, but people eventually became used to it. Every now and then a bully would shove them, or yell an insult at them. But they were happy and invincible. No amount of torture from a bully could change the fact that they had each other.

"So what happened?" Mel asked. "How did you go from that to... well, what you are now?"

Blaine shrugged. "People change and drift apart." he chose his words carefully. "I was at NYU, he was at UCLA. We stopped having so much in common I suppose."

"What else?"

"What do you mean?"

"Something else happened. I can _hear_ it in your voice, Blaine, I'm not stupid."

"Mel." his voice was strangled. "Please don't. Just don't."

She sighed. "Fine, another day then. I have one more question though."

"Yes?"

"How did you end up with me?"

"How many times do I have to tell you this isn't a relationship?" though there was slight teasing to his voice this time, Blaine couldn't be happier the subject was steering away from Kurt.

She laughed. "You know what I mean. Just... tell me."

"You were there. You were determined to be some part of my life. I gave up pushing you away."

"But _why_?"

"Ok so... I dated a couple of guys, during college, and after I graduated... but I don't know... they weren't him. I couldn't help it. It was either, jokes they didn't laugh at that he would have, a jacket they were wearing he would have turned his nose up at and called an abomination. Shit, the way they kissed was compared to what it felt like kissing him. I gave up on relationships altogether. Or at least, searching for them. I kept hoping I'd find that one person that would be even more amazing than Kurt was and would let me forget about him. But it never happened. And then there was the night I met you. I'm sure you remember."

"I do." She said fondly. "Do you know why I approached you?"

"Actually, no."

"My ex happened to be there and I wanted to make him jealous. You looked reasonably harmless, you didn't seem to be there with anyone and you were cute enough that he would definitely feel threatened, but not enough to punch your face in... or at least I hoped he wouldn't."

"Huh." Blaine said thoughtfully. "Anyway, jealous violet ex aside, I only danced with you because I'd already had a bit... well, a lot to drink that night and uh... sometimes when I drink I kinda go, uh straight."

"Blaine, that's not a thing. And you don't drink."

"Yeah, I stopped after that night. And, ok, maybe that's not a thing, and it's more just that a get a little horny when I drink and don't really care if about guys, or girls or whatever. I don't know. It's just the only time I've ever kissed girls and liked it, which is twice, has been under the influence of alcohol. All the same, I was going to dance with you for a little bit, actually have some fun for once in my life and go home and deal with the hangover the next morning. But... well, you know what happened. I don't need to tell you."

"I recall you saying 'Oh my God what am I doing? I'm gay.' A lot that night."

Blaine felt his face go red. "Really?"

"It was kind of weird. I couldn't work out if you were actually serious, or just _that_ drunk."

"Guys don't say that to you often?"

"Oh I wish they did."

He laughed. "Well, I was going to get rid of you. Leave it as a one night, momentary lapse in judgement thing. But, you were determined to stick around. And, I realised that when you were around... I wasn't comparing you to him. There was nothing about you that was a constant reminder of what I didn't have and it was good to be able to have that… distraction around so I could maybe finally stop being pathetic and move on. So... I kept you around."

"Oh, you just 'kept me around' did you?" she asked with a smirk. "It had nothing to do with the fact that I was relentless in my pursuit to stick around you."

She pressed into his side more and sniffed. Blaine held back a grimace and a reprimand to her to blow her nose. She seemed even smaller and more fragile than normal.

"Why is that, by the way?" he asked. "Why did you want to stay around?"

"It's a long story."

"We had an agreement."

"It's longer than yours."

"Then how about I go and have a shower and change into something more comfortable? Then you tell me everything."

She sighed. "Fine. I figured I'd have to tell you someday."

He patted her leg and she detangled herself from him. "Alright, I'll be back in a moment."

**X X X**

Blaine slipped into a pair old track pants and a shirt. He dried his hair as best he could with a towel. He felt much more refreshed now and he was ready to interrogate Melinda about her past life. After all, he'd basically just bared his soul to her (at least, as close as he was ever going to get to doing such a thing). He'd told her things he'd never told another person. He thought it would leave him open wounded and broken. But he felt... fresh. Clean and new. Like a weight had been taken from him.

He stepped out into the living room.

Of all things he was expecting the man standing halfway between the door and the couch wasn't it. He was dressed in dark, tight jeans, boots, and a long forest green jacket that was buttoned up.

Though he looked years older than the images frozen in Blaine's mind, he still looked exactly the same, he did his hair the same way, he still had the same porcelain skin… even the way he stood, with perfect posture and a subtle 'yeah, this is who I am, bitch. Deal with it.' air about him was the same.

Blaine tried to speak. Really, he did. But he couldn't. Words were stuck somewhere between his brain and his mouth and refused to come out. All he could do was stare openly shocked at the man before him.

"You should leave." Melinda stood up from her spot on the couch and looked at the man. "It's probably best for every one."

He nodded. "Perhaps. This really was a stupid idea. I'm sorry."

He turned away. It was when his hand closed around the door handle Blaine seemed to find his voice again.

"Kurt!"

And the man stopped and waited.

Blaine was waiting too, his voice has retreated back to that place in his throat. He willed himself to say something. Anything more. But it was like his brain simply ceased to function.

"What... what are you doing here?" he hated how weak and pathetic he sounded. He should have been angry. Livid even. How had Kurt found him? What insane thought had led him to believe showing up like this would have been ok?

At his question the man lost his composure, only slightly, but Blaine knew him well enough to spot the way his shoulders fell and his eyes lost their focused confidence. "I don't know."

Blaine took half a step forward in the impulsive need to comfort him, but stopped himself. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Melinda's eyes flitting between the two of them frozen to the spot, unsure whether she should flee from the scene or not.

"Kurt."

He looked at Blaine expectantly.

Blaine sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "I wish I was drunk for this. Uh… do you need a place to stay? You can sleep on the couch and we can talk in the morning."

Kurt regained his composure. "I have accommodation."

Blaine hated his frosty, distance tone. "Alright then." so he did his best to imitate it. "You should go. But we will talk again." He walked towards the door and opened it. "I'm not letting you get away again." his voice was barely above a whisper as Kurt passed him.

Blue eyes met his. "I'll call you soon."

As the door shut Blaine turned hesitantly and met Melinda's sympathetic gaze.

"Are you going to cry?" she asked.

He took a deep steadying breath. "No. No, I'm ok. I think."

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**A/N: Re-reading over this… I think I have a bit of an obsession with Blaine being drunk. Uhh… anyway. **

**Come on guys… lets bring the average up to 9 reviews per chapter :). **


	6. Chapter Five

**A/N: umm… wow! I never realised that the 'begging for reviews' thing actually worked. Lol. I'm totally blown away by that, so thank you **_**so much**_** guys. I honestly can't get over it. 80 alerts on this thing. **_**That's insanity **_**(the good fun kind)**_**. **_

**In regards to this chapter, I'm terribly sorry. One, for it's length, it was just, adding anything else felt forced and disjointed. And two, I really wanted to reveal what was going on with Kurt in this chapter, I really did. But Kurt's being very tight lipped (K, as an author I know pretty much what's going on. But Kurt in the story doesn't want to go spilling his heart yet. ). Still, read it, because there is some sort of progress (small, but there) and there'll be even more in the next few chapters that you don't want to miss out on ;). **

**Also, I'm **_**incredibly excited **_**for Original Song. Pretty sure that **_**something Klaine is going to happen**_**. And about freaking time! I don't want them to get together yet, but I want some sort of advancement (like for Blaine to realise he's actually head over heels for Kurt. Because he is, but he's suffering from 'stupid teenage boy syndrome' grrr).**

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"Still ordering a medium drip I see?" Kurt remarked as they took their seats.

Blaine nodded and took a sip.

"I find, when you find something good, stick with it."

"I don't know, change never hurt anyone."

"Right." Blaine had nothing else to really say.

The two of them directed their focus entirely on stirring their drinks. Blaine found himself studying the table intensely. It was made of real wood, not the fake laminated stuff seen so often. There were interesting patterns and grooves in the grain. He ran his fingers along it experimentally; the lacquer coating was so thick that instead of the expected rough bumpy texture, it was smooth.

"Are you into furniture these day?"

Blaine's head snapped up to look at the man in front of him.

"No. Why?"

"You just looked really fascinated by the table." Kurt gestured.

Blaine could only shrug. He looked back at it briefly.

"I just think it's a nice touch to use real timber instead of the fake stuff." he felt pathetic, absolutely and utterly pathetic. "So um, what are you doing these days, with um, work and stuff?"

This time it was Kurt's turn to shrug.

"This and that. Nothing, everything."

Blaine raised his eyebrows.

"Vague." he said.

Kurt nodded.

"What about you?"

"I work for SBA Records."

"Aspiring artist?" Kurt raised an eyebrow.

"Manager and part-time producer."

"Oh."

Blaine nodded and they slipped into silence. Apparently, in a group of people there's supposed to be a silence every seven minutes, on average. Between Blaine and Kurt it seemed to be every sixty seconds. He struggled for something to say, do or ask, but came up with nothing aside the obvious 'what the hell is up with you?' but every time he'd tried to get near that topic Kurt either quickly changed it, or just point blank refused to answer it. Which made Blaine wonder what the point of the torturous coffee outing was for at all.

"You should be singing." Kurt broke the silence.

"I, uh... Why would you say that?"

"You're good at it."

"Thanks..." Blaine said hesitantly.

"I'm just speaking truthfully."

Blaine nodded and took another sip of his drink. Truthfully, he wanted an excuse to leave. He checked his watch; he had another half an hour of his break left. He suppressed a groan at the thought.

"This is uncomfortable isn't it?" Kurt said.

Maybe he had groaned in frustration out loud.

"If you would tell me why we're here, it could be less so." He was aware there was a bite to his tone, but he didn't care. There was a lot he'd like to tell Kurt that he wasn't.

"Stop it Blaine."

"Stop what?"

"Trying to get me to talk. I don't want to."

"Then why the _hell_ are you here? This is ridiculous you know. I deserve some sort of answer." He stopped holding back on his anger. The only reason he was keeping his tone down at all was the fact they were still in the small coffee shop.

"I'm sorry." Kurt's voice was a strangled whisper. "I just needed a reminder.'"

"A reminder of what? Were you always this vague and I've just forgotten, or is it a new development? Stop talking in riddles because it's starting to piss me off."

Kurt had the grace to look almost apologetic.

"Blaine, I-

"Blaine!"

A hand suddenly slapped him hard on the back, causing Blaine to choke and nearly spill his coffee. After a moment of recovery, he looked up and saw Tyler looking down at him smiling broadly. The smile was contagious and Blaine quickly stood up. Tyler embraced him in a tight hug and held him there for a little longer than a hug would usually last. Blaine found it difficult to miss the way Tyler's hand rested on his back longer than necessary, and the way his fingertips ran gently over part of his spine just before he pulled away. Blaine gave him a questioning look, but Tyler avoided his gaze.

"Tyler, it's really annoying when you do that." A voice came from behind the blonde.

"Do what?" Tyler turned to a tall red-haired girl who had appeared at his side.

"Stop suddenly to talk to people-

"Oh!" Tyler stopped her mid-sentence. "Kayla, this is Blaine. He's helping me with the album. Blaine, this Kayla, my girlfriend."

Blaine smiled and shook her hand. "Pleasure to meet you."

Kayla eyed him wearily. "Yeah... same." She turned to Tyler. "Is he the guy you were talking about?"

Blaine noticed Tyler's cheeks tinged red.

"Yeah, that's him."

There was a cough from behind him and Blaine spun around. His eyes widened at Kurt still sitting at the table looking extremely uncomfortable.

Tyler gave him a look Blaine couldn't read. "Who are you?" He asked bluntly.

"Tyler, and uh... Kayley?"

"Kayla."

"Kayla, right." Sometimes he just wasn't that great with names (or, the ones he couldn't be bothered to try and commit to memory). "This is my uh... This is Kurt. Kurt, this is Tyler, I work with him and apparently his girlfriend Kayla."

Kurt made no move to stand up. Instead he waved from where he was and gave a forced half smile. "Nice to meet you."

"Yeah, same." Tyler narrowed his eyes slightly at him and looked back to Blaine. "We should get going. I'll see you on Monday?"

"Yeah."

Tyler unexpectedly pulled Blaine in for a second hug, it was harder and stronger than the first one and caught Blaine completely off guard.

"You can do so much better than him." he whispered and Blaine wondered if the way Tyler's hot breath hit his ear was intentional or not (either way, it shouldn't have made him shudder in that way, or think of other situations where Tyler could be whispering in his ear). "Alright, see ya later." there was a final pat on his back and Tyler and Kayla left to join the queue for their coffee.

Blaine sat back down in his seat. He tried to ignore Kurt's questioning stare, but after several seconds he couldn't and squirmed in his seat.

"What?" he asked.

"Chasing after straight guys is fruitless. I of all people would know that."

"What?"

"I know a crush when I see it."

"I don't have a crush on Tyler." He countered quickly. Blaine could feel the blood rushing to his face in betrayal.

"I'm just saying, don't bother."

"Ok, one, I _don't_ like Tyler" Lie. Massive lie. But that wasn't the point. "And two, even if I did... he likes guys as well, so... there you go."

"Oh." Kurt sat back in his seat. "So what was the deal with the girl then?"

"Um, he likes girls too?" Blaine said hesitantly.

Kurt shook his head. "No, I could care less about… whathisface and his relationships. I mean your one. You know, tiny, Latino, really long hair? In your apartment... any of this ringing a bell?"

"Oh! You mean Mel?"

"Yeah. What happened to one hundred percent gay?" Kurt gave him an almost accusing stare.

"She's not my... that is, we're not at all... we're just friends. And up until a few days ago, I don't think we were even that."

"Friends who live together in a one bedroom apartment?" Kurt asked sceptically.

"She has her own place." Blaine snapped getting irritated. How could Kurt, who hadn't been in his life at all for the past six years (other than in his thoughts sometimes late at night), think he could just waltz in and start judging him and situations he knew nothing about? "What's it to you anyway? Sure there may have been... times when we... but really, they've been very few and far between and it's not exactly like I've had guys lining up for me. We've just been there for each other. No, I'm not proud of it. Not at all, but you have no right to judge me."

"But that's not who you are and you know it."

"Six years is a long time and people change and quite frankly, I don't care anymore." Blaine pushed his chair back. "I should get back to work. You've made it clear you're not going to tell me what the hell is going on with you and I don't have to sit here and watch and listen to you judge me. Let me just remind you that you _chose_ to not be a part of my life. So don't act like you have permission to comment on it." He stood up. "Goodbye Kurt."

He turned and started walking. He heard a "Blaine!" as he approached the door but he didn't turn around. He refused to turn around. He couldn't believe Kurt thought he had the right to say such things and he just knew he'd been thinking even more that hadn't passed his lips. It was all in his eyes. Those stupid, expressive eyes that had brought him undone too many times. He'd be happier to never look at them again.

"Blaine." a hand gripped his shoulder and halted him.

Blaine spun around and there were those goddamn eyes. Kurt was still taller than him but in that moment Blaine was the more intimidating one.

"What?" he all but growled out.

"You're right. I shouldn't be judging you. It's just that... you're better than that. You're stronger than that."

"Really? Because where I'm standing, I feel pretty weak and broken and the last thing I want is for you to be reminding me just how much."

Kurt glanced down to the ground for a moment and dropped his arm from Blaine's shoulder. When he looked up again there were tears shining in his eyes. His voice cracked a little when he spoke.

"You're not the only one who's broken."

Blaine took a step back. "Well, I don't know what you want from me. I doubt I could help anyway."

"I think I… I just want you. I want…" he trailed off.

Blaine's heart skipped a beat at hearing those words pass Kurt's lips, even if they didn't mean what he wanted them to.

"No, I think you want the naive sixteen year old who could pretend he had it all together to the point where he was almost able to believe it. You don't want the twenty-five year old who knows he doesn't have a clue."

He turned away again and knew Kurt wasn't going to try and follow him. He wondered if it would be the last time he was going to see the man, but somewhere deeper down he just knew it wasn't.

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**A/N: Hello massive emotional issues. Fun story fact: I usually find myself listening to Birds of Tokyo when I write this fic. Not sure why, just do. They're a good band though. Check them out. **

**You should definitely leave a review and tell me what you think! Really, you should! Do it… dooo iiiit… (idareyou). **


	7. Chapter Six

**A/N: So… I wrote the song Tyler sings in this because I couldn't think of a song that would fit the situation properly, and I also figured that if I'm going to have a character that makes original music, if I'm going to be including lyrics of one of their songs I should make an effort for them to be original (mind you, I'm not planning on having any other lyrics by Tyler in this story… it's just in this instance it's somewhat plot relevant). I'm not a songwriter (it's a bit of a secret hobby though) and it's not by any means great. But there you go. If, for whatever reason, you'd like to know the lyrics in full let me know and I'll post them in my profile or something. **

**Thank you again to everyone who has reviewed, alerted, favourited and read this story. I honestly really appreciate it so much. It's seriously so awesome to know that other people are enjoying this story. I have a lot of fun writing it, but to know other people are liking it too is honestly awesome.**

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It was Monday morning and they were scheduled to record. Blaine hadn't heard from Kurt since their outing on Friday and he was starting to doubt his gut feeling about seeing him again. He tried to forget about it, and instead focused on the fact that Tyler Blake was running half an hour later and wasting precious time and money.

"I suppose we could lay down some rhythm guitar for-

He was interrupted by the slamming of the studio door. Tyler walked in. His hair was sticking up at all angles, nothing like his usual smoothed down locks and he had dark circles under his tired eyes. Blaine tried to greet him but Tyler didn't even glance his way he just headed to the recording booth and starting taking out his guitar, making sure it was in tune.

"We're not doing 'Shining Now' today." he said

"Um, actually, yes we are." Blaine countered. It had been on the schedule for a week now.

"No. We're doing a new song. Ok? I don't care if I ruin your perfect little schedule or whatever. We're doing this song or I'm leaving." Tyler dared Blaine to disagree with just a look.

"Ok then." Blaine chose not to argue, apparently arrogant Tyler had made a bit of a comeback. "What's the song?"

"It's called All Wrong. I have the music." he threw a folder on the floor. "If people want it. I'll do it completely acoustic if I have to. I don't care." He strummed a couple of chords.

"Alright. Let's hear it and then we'll take if from there."

It's hard to make chords just on an acoustic guitar sound angry, but somehow Tyler managed it. Maybe it was the pure fury on his face that added to the effect, Blaine couldn't tell, but he hit the strings so hard as he was strumming he was worried the strings were going to snap from the pressure. Then he started singing. It was low and gravely and unlike anything he'd done before.

_"She's got it all wrong cause she's only seen the one side._

_She's got it all wrong cause she doesn't know, your story._

_She's got it all wrong cause she thinks I've got something to hide."_

The song continued and Blaine could hear the song gradually building up to the chorus.

_"I was never in love with him, _

_Why couldn't you see that? _

_I was never writing songs for him. _

_It's another stupid fact, _

_That you refuse to believe,_

_Now when you open your eyes and see, _

_That it's the truth I'll be gone, _

_Cause you've got it all wrong."_

He continued to play, still looking absolutely furious, the song didn't seem to release his anger at all, it only fuelled him on. It actually scared Blaine a little. Tyler was arrogant yes, but he was also usually quite kind. Blaine didn't realise he was capable of being so vicious. So where had the song come from?

_"Is the sun rising in the west where you are? _

_Cause you've got everything backwards."_ he sang a bridge that took a break from the anger of the song and started to touch on sadness.

Finally the song ended and Tyler abruptly put his guitar down. "I need a break." he said before storming out of the studio.

The other musicians looked just as bewildered as Blaine felt. He stood up from his seat. "We'll take a break for now and I'll see if I can calm him down."

It didn't take long for Blaine to find Tyler. He was sitting in a small office next the studio; they usually gave that office to interns, or work experience kids, it was usually the dumping ground for archive boxes that needed to be stored away. He had his head on the desk.

Blaine knocked on the door politely. There was a grunt from Tyler.

"Can I come in?"

"Whatever."

It wasn't a no, so Blaine stepped into the room and took the seat across from him. When Tyler made no indication he had any intention of talking, Blaine started.

"What was that?"

"New song." Tyler had lifted his head off the desk but didn't look at Blaine.

"Yeah, I got that much. I meant everything that came along with the song. What's up with you?"

"Isn't it obvious?"

"Um, no. Not really."

"Kayla dumped me."

"Oh. Why?"

Tyler let out a bitter laugh. "She thinks I'm in love with you."

Blaine swallowed thickly, his throat went dry and his stomach flipped all that the same time in an extremely unnerving way.

"Why, uh, why would she think that?"

"Does it even matter?" Tyler snapped. "She dumped me for something that's not true cause she's so consumed in her own stupid little world where she can convince herself of anything. I swear, if she wanted to believe in unicorns she could convince herself they were real somewhere."

"Don't you think you're overreacting a little? Maybe you should give her, and yourself some time to calm down."

Now Tyler looked at him, square in the eye. "No offence Blaine. But you're the last person I'd take relationship advice from."

"Uh, slight offence taken."

"Seriously, were you on a date on Friday? Because I could feel the awkward the second I walked in the door."

"No." Blaine said quickly. "That definitely wasn't a date. He, Kurt, that is, is the last person I'd ever be on a date with."

"Really? Cause he definitely bats for your team and it certainly looked like he held some sort of torch for you. That's the expression right?"

"What would make you say that?" Blaine's eyebrows shot up.

"You didn't see the way he glared at me? He might as well have been yelling 'Blaine's mine. Back off'."

"Uh… what?" Blaine's mind reeled. Surely Tyler had just imagined that. There was no way that Kurt… no. There was just no way.

"Yeah, ok, see this is why I'm definitely right in not taking relationship advice from you."

"Right, well, I'm just going to end the conversation here."

Tyler shook his head. "Man, I'm sorry for dumping all that on you. I'm acting like such a chick."

Blaine shrugged. "Really, it's cool. On the bright side, you got an awesome song out of it."

Tyler's eyes seemed to light up at that. "You really think so?"

"Yeah, I really do, it's something a bit different, which is great. Shine Now can be put aside for today. I really think we should do this new song. All Wrong was it?"

"Yeah."

Blaine stood up. "If you need a couple more minutes that's fine, take your time."

Tyler glanced up at him. "You do realize it's you she thinks I'm in love with right?"

Blaine felt his face heat up. "I was going to really pretend that it wasn't. So thanks for making that awkward."

Tyler gave him a smug smirk. "You're quite welcome."

**X X X**

Melinda knew she was an awesome investigator. Others would probably call it snooping, or better yet, stalking. But she was just investigating. She was convinced she would have made an awesome lawyer, or private investigator, or something. But she couldn't be bothered with the study to get there (and the career probably wasn't as glamorous as it seemed on TV anyway, and dead bodies would probably make her throw up).

Anyway, it was these skills that had lead to her holding a piece of paper in her hand with Kurt's cell number on it (ok, so all it had taken was going through Blaine's call history while he wasn't paying attention, but there's no need to take away from her pride over the achievement).

She didn't have a plan yet. She wasn't entirely sure what she was going to do with his phone number, it was just good to have it. In case she decided to do something.

She didn't know what had gone down on their coffee date. Only that it hadn't gone too well. Blaine had refused to talk about it and had become even more distant. Which was fine by her because she was worried he was going to try and pry her story out of her. She didn't want that. She never intended to tell him anything. In the past year Blaine had become her escape from that world and she wasn't about to voluntarily relive it.

The story of Blaine and Kurt deeply intrigued her. For starters, what kind of coincidence was it that just after Blaine had explained the role Kurt had played in his life the guy showed up at his apartment?

That had been a strange experience.

About ten minutes after Blaine had gone to get in the shower there had been a knock on the door. Melinda had sighed and forced herself up off the couch, deeply annoyed she'd just found the most perfect comfortable position and the cushions had moulded around her in a perfection that was hard to achieve on the couch.

When she opened the door she found herself face to face, well, face to chest technically, with a confused looking male.

"Can I help you?" she asked raising her eyebrows.

"I think I have the wrong address."

As soon as he spoke Mel knew who he was. He had a very distinct voice. Higher than usual, with a very slight lisp and a soft tone that wasn't all unpleasant to the ear. She smiled.

"Why do you think that?"

"I'm, uh, looking for, um, Blaine Anderson. Does he live on this floor, or building?"

She nodded. "He does."

Kurt looked slightly agitated. "Could you give me the number if you know it?"

"Four C."

"This is..."

Her grin widened. "I'm just messing with you. This is the residence of Blaine Anderson. Who are you?" she asked only not to freak him out.

"Kurt. Kurt Hummel. I'm an old… friend. Uh... where is Blaine?"

"In the shower. He'll be done soon, I think."

She somehow managed to act complete blasé about the whole thing, when secretly her head had been reeling. Blaine had _just_ told her about the guy now standing awkwardly by the door, looking like he could bolt at any moment. He had just told her. In what world did that happen? Really.

She studied Kurt, her first time seeing him. There was something in his eyes and stance that indicated he was older than he looked (because he did look a fair bit younger than Blaine, if she compared). He was handsome. Not conventionally so, and he had a rather feminine look. But she could see how Blaine could have been attracted to him. What shocked her most was that she could picture the two as a pair easily. It took no effort to picture the man in front of her and her friend holding hands or with their arms around each other. It was startling and now even more so she wanted to know why they'd broken up.

When Blaine had seen Kurt standing there he'd had a look on his face that she had never seen before. He went sheet white and there was such a mix of emotions. Anger and fear, mixed with longing. Such longing that if she'd had any doubts before about whether or not Blaine was still in love with the guy, they were gone.

She wasn't attuned to Kurt like she was to Blaine, but when Blaine was standing in front on him, Kurt looked worried and hesitant and she swore she could see him doubting his decision to come.

When she finally spoke up and suggested Kurt leave it was because Blaine looked like he was about to break and she hadn't been able to take it anymore. She wasn't sure if she was able to truly like anyone who could do that to Blaine.

She'd hoped, and prayed even to a God she didn't really believe in that their getting coffee together would be a step forward. But when she'd gotten to Blaine's apartment that night it was obvious it had been at least ten steps backwards (which considering where they were, was quite a feat). He very abruptly had told her the whole exercise had been pointless and he'd prefer to pretend it didn't happen.

So that was how she found herself dialling Kurt's number. She wasn't completely sure it was the right thing to be doing, but she was sure nothing she could to could make things worse.

The phone rang exactly six times.

"Hello, Kurt Hummel speaking."

**X X X**

Blaine probably would have been fine if it weren't for several reasons. The first being that Tyler told him the song was about him. Which he would have been able to ignore if it weren't for lines such as _'I may have mentioned you once or twice in conversation. Because you were so down I couldn't help but worry_.' and _'Maybe now I'll just go and run into his arms'_. It also didn't help that for such lines Tyler took to staring directly at him. There was also the fact that Tyler had basically, in a round about way, said that Kurt was in love him. Tyler didn't know their history, and was a complete outsider, but there was something that must have made him say it. Blaine found himself wanting to know what that something was.

Then there was Kurt himself. That situation was a whole lot of 'just don't think about it and it doesn't exist'.

So if it weren't for those things he would have been fine. And if he had been fine, he probably wouldn't have made what he knew was a stupid decision.

They'd just finished laying down the drums for the song, which despite everything, was shaping up to be a good angry song.

"I think we're done for today. Tomorrow we'll finish vocals and the guitar."

The musicians began packing up their gear and Tyler approached Blaine.

"Hey, so what do you think?" he asked.

"It needs to be on the album." Blaine said, trying to keep his voice as neutral as possible. "It's different Everything else has been kinda, well, on the side of sappy love stuff... this is a different side of you."

"It won't feel out of place though?"

"No. I'm sure it won't. Varity is good."

Tyler flashed him a charming grin. "Ok, cool, awesome. Hey, so, I was wondering..." he suddenly looked a little shy. "Did you want to get dinner with me this week?"

Blaine blinked at him. "I… uh…"

"Just to clarify, I do mean on a date."

"Yeah, sure." the words slipped from Blaine's mouth before he could stop them, but he found himself not really wanting to take them back.

The shy, uncertain look vanished from Tyler's face and he was grinning confidently again. "Awesome!"

"Yeah... awesome..."

**X X X**

"Kurt? Hi. My names Mel, Melinda actually. You probably know me as the girl who stood awkwardly in the room at Blaine's apartment?"

"Oh, yeah, I know who you are."

"Right, glad we cleared that up." She paused awkwardly.

"Why are you calling?"

She bit her lip. "I'm not exactly sure to be honest" she said. "But I do know I want us to talk."

"Did Blaine put you up to this?"

Mel laughed. "God no. Blaine doesn't have a clue I'm calling you, and would probably kill me if he did."

"Right. So..."

"When are you free to meet up?"

"Listen, Melinda, I don't think-

"Wait," She cut him off quickly. "Before you start on your monologue as to why we shouldn't have anything to do with each other and yada, yada etc, believe me I've thought of every reason to why I _shouldn't_ have called you. Let me just say this, I don't take no for an answer. I'm extremely persistent and won't give up. Ever. I'd say ask Blaine, but I don't think that'd be helpful. So you're better off just agreeing."

"But really it-

"No. This is happening. I can assure you Blaine won't find out because I value my life. But I want to help. I have no idea why since I'm usually quite a selfish person who doesn't give a rip about other people. But for some reason, I want to. Blaine won't tell me anything about you other than you were his first boyfriend."

"And definitely not his last." Kurt muttered.

"What?" Mel was sure she'd heard correctly, but wanted to make sure.

"Nothing. You're persistent you say?"

"Very."

"I must be really starved for interaction with other people because I'm actually contemplating agreeing."

"We have to meet at my place." she said.

"Why?"

"Hello? Have you met Blaine?"

"I don't know what that means."

"If I tell him I'm going out I run the risk of him pressing for details. But if I tell him I'm just staying at home, and he for whatever reason calls and I don't answer he'll freak."

"I thought you weren't his girlfriend."

"I'm not. But like I said, have you met Blaine?"

"Um, right. So what's your address?"

She quickly gave it to him. "The number I called on is my cell. Text a time ok?"

"Ok."

"I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship."

"Did you just quote Casablanca to me?"

"I may have."

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**Weird note to end on I know. But Kurt's slowly becoming more and more present, which is good :)**

**Review! **


	8. Chapter Seven

**A/N: Original Song. **

**Gah! **

**There are no words. Seriously. Just… that kiss couldn't have been more epic if they tried. **

**This chapter is long. Real A/N down the bottom cause I don't want to spoil anything. Hope you like it!**

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Blaine pushed him up against the door and pressed his body closer to him. There was a moan as Blaine sucked on his bottom lip, his teeth ever so lightly grazing it. One hand gripped the mans waist tightly, while the other frantically dug through his pockets for his keys.

He was finally forced the break the kiss, but the taller of the two continued his kisses along Blaine's jaw and down his neck, eliciting an almost painful moan from Blaine as he was overcome with desire more intense than he'd ever felt.

Somehow the keys ended up in the lock. He tried to open the door, but it wouldn't budge.

"Stupid lock needs to get fixed." He growled.

The response from the other was to suck a little harder at his pulse point.

"You're killing me." He groaned.

Finally, it was swung open and Blaine tightened his grip on the other man to stop him from falling backwards.

"That's the point." He said in a breathy voice.

As their lips found each other's once again, Blaine managed to kick the door shut with his feet and throw his keys somewhere in the general direction of the kitchen counter. With both arms free again he pulled the taller man tightly to him.

"Bedroom."

Blaine started pulling him towards the bedroom, and he willingly followed. They fell back on the bed ungracefully, their heated pursuit for each other never stopping for a second.

"You've gotten really good at this." Blaine gasped, as hips were ground roughly against each other.

"You've obviously been out of practice."

Lips started making their way down again. His neck, his collar bone, buttons were quickly being popped. There was more skin on skin and the sensation jolted him.

"Stop."

There was a pause.

"What the hell are we doing?"

"I know you're familiar with the concept." He placed another kiss on Blaine's neck.

Blaine pushed against him firmly. "Kurt, I'm serious."

"What does it matter? Do you want me?"

"Yes. You know that I-

"Then stop thinking about it. Just feel."

"No." Blaine managed to slide out from under Kurt. "No. This isn't right."

**X X X**

_Earlier. _

"Dammit!" Blaine threw the pale grey shirt back onto the bed with a huff. Nothing was right.

His room currently resembled a disaster zone. Every single shirt he owned was strewn across his bed. Shoes were scattered around floor and ties had been flung everywhere. He went to run a hand through his hair, but remembered he'd just spent forty-five minutes carefully styling it to perfection. He kicked his bed instead (and winced as his big toe ached in protest at the rather violent action).

"This is hopeless." He muttered.

He couldn't remember ever feeling so nervous. Tyler was the first guy in a long time that had paid attention to him, that he actually might like back. He couldn't afford to screw this up. He didn't want to screw this up.

Circumstances might have been saying that he was just a rebound for Tyler, but Blaine was determined to change that. He could be _the_ guy, not just the rebound guy. He was sure of it.

He just had to find the right shirt.

Pants had been easy. He had a favourite pair of black denim jeans that made his ass look incredible (or so he assumed, because when he first tried them on, Mel's jaw and dropped and she'd said something along the lines of 'Damn Blaine, sexy much?'). It was a no brainer to wear those. He now stood shirtless in his room scowling at his poor collection of shirts.

When and why had he decided it was a good idea to just grab whatever the hell was on sale with little to no thought? He should have gone shopping during the week.

"Having problems?" Melinda poked her head in the door. She surveyed the scene. "What the hell happened here? Oh... wait, the hair. Just saw it." her gaze was diverted to the top of his head, her eyes went wide. "What the fuck Blaine? Seriously?"

"I think I'm going to have a panic attack." He admitted.

Mel approached him and clamped both hands down on his shoulders. She had to stand on her tip toes to be eye level with him.

"Ok. You need to chill out. Breathe."

He took a deep breath and she removed her hands. He stared at her, waiting for further instructions, because he was at a loss.

"Ok, now, one; get rid of the hair. Go and rinse out whatever crap you've put in there cause it looks awful."

"But Mel, it-

"No. Take my word for it. Your curls are adorable. This helmet thing you've got going on is not. So go and get in the shower and don't come out until every little bit of product is gone, and I'll find a shirt for you."

"He's going to be here in ten minutes! I don't have time for a shower!"

"I'll stall him."

She pushed Blaine towards the bathroom even as he protested, but she wouldn't have any of it. She herself wanted to protest against the date altogether, there was something about it that just didn't sit right with her. She'd been convinced that Blaine was still in love with Kurt and now all of a sudden this random guy was in the picture? She didn't like it. But seeing how happy Blaine had been in the past couple of days (happier than he had been in a while), had forced her to keep her mouth shut. No matter how much it was killing her.

Once Blaine was in the shower she picked up a navy button down shirt and hung it on the door. It would look fine. Blaine could make anything look good really. But even if it didn't, it wasn't like it mattered. This Tyler thing was temporary. It had to be.

Fifteen minutes later she heard the water shut off and there was a knock on the door.

As soon as she saw, who she assumed to be Tyler standing there, she understood a little better where Blaine was coming from. If she were going on a date with this guy, she'd be freaking out about what to wear too. His hair was a natural looking blonde, swept across his face, in a way that suited him more perfectly than she could explain. He wore navy jeans and grey button down shirt with a loosely hanging red tie (that somehow he managed to make work). He grinned charmingly.

"Mel right?" he asked.

His voice was silky smooth and made her legs feel a little weaker. This guy was a singer? She desperately wondered what his voice sounded like.

She nodded "Tyler?"

"Yeah. Blaine didn't tell me you were gorgeous."

Her face heated up as his eyes briefly swept over her. She felt suddenly self-conscious wearing only and old over-sized hoodie and leggings.

_Gay. Gay. Gay. Gay_. Her mind chanted over and over. _He's gay. Not into you. Into Blaine. Blaine, your friend. _

"Probably because I'm not his type." she finally managed to say something. She opened the door wider. "He's just finishing up getting ready. So, come in."

"Sweetheart, with your looks, I'm pretty sure you're everyone's type."

"Please. Now I know you're lying." A stray giggle escaped. _Bad Mel. Stop flirting. _She wasn't all that attractive. Sure, she would make herself look alright with the help of make up, a curling iron and fitting clothes. But really, she was just average. "Plus, you probably shouldn't be flirting with your date's best friend. Want a drink?"

He shook his head. "No I'm good." He stuffed his hands in his pockets. "So, got big plans tonight?" He asked her.

She laughed. "Obviously. Can't you tell?" She gestured to what she was wearing. _Oh yeah, good one. Just make the hot guy acutely aware that you're dressed like a slob_.

"Right. Stupid question on my half. Who are you all dressed up for then?" He teased.

He was flirting with her and she was enjoying every second of it, even though she knew she shouldn't have been. He was Blaine's date for crying out loud. Blaine would kill her if he found out.

"This guy, Kurt. We're hanging out at my apartment later on." She winced. That was supposed to be on the very down low. Though, she was sure Tyler wouldn't know who he was. "Oh shoot. I wasn't… uh… don't tell Blaine please? I can't explain why but… he'd be really upset."

Tyler's eyebrows had raised at hearing the name Kurt. "Why? Is this Kurt guy someone special?" He asked.

She shook her head. "No. No he's… he's no one at all."

"Then why would Blaine be upset?"

"Uh…" She desperately tried to think of a lie on the spot. "Because, he's really kind of protective and likes to screen and interrogate every guy I go on dates with. I didn't want him worrying about when he's been freaking out about his date with you."

Tyler could have punched something. What the hell was it about this Kurt guy that had everyone sprouting lies at him all over the place? Who was he? He highly doubted Melinda was talking about a different Kurt. After all, how many Kurt's in the world were there? However, he tried to ignore it, and instead forced out a smirk.

"Blaine's been freaking out about going on a date with me?"

"Whatever she's told you is a lie." Blaine appeared. Hair mostly gel free (though it looked like he'd put _something_ in his hair to tame the curls a little, it was a far cry better than the slicked back, hard as a helmet thing he'd had going on before), his shirt buttoned up save for the top two, and a jacket slung casually over one arm.

Tyler gave a low whistle. "I definitely approve of that outfit." He said.

"You're welcome." Mel said.

"Have you been waiting long?" Blaine asked.

Mel was slightly surprised at the cool and collected Blaine she was seeing now. It was so different from the three seconds away from a panic attack Blaine from about twenty minutes ago.

Tyler shook his head. "Not long at all. Just long enough for Mel to share her big plans for tonight with me."

Mel nodded with false enthusiasm. "A John Hughes marathon is long over due. It's just me, myself, and teen movies from the eighties tonight."

"Here?" Blaine asked.

She shook her head. "No. I'll go back to mine. You know… just in case." She winked not too subtly and Tyler laughed. "Now you boys hurry along. It was nice meeting you Tyler. Take care of him alright?"

Tyler saluted. "Yes captain. It was lovely to meet you too." He added.

She shut the door behind them and sighed. Had she really just flirted, big time, with Blaine's date? She needed to find a straight man for herself, pronto.

**X X X**

Kurt triple checked the address on his phone as he stood in front of the building. Aside from 'I really hope this is the right building or else this will be really embarrassing for me' the only question on his mind was 'What the _hell_ am I doing?'.

Actually, that question had been on his mind a lot the past week. Past month even. What the hell was he doing? Being here in New York. Trying to hold some sort of a civil conversation with _Blaine_ of all people. Letting his life drift idly by as he did _nothing_ of note or interest, except sell a few lazily written short films. In his bag (the one he took with him everywhere) was a half written script of the story he just couldn't finish.

He shoved it in there once with the intention of going to a café to write more. But that had never happened and he'd never taken it out of his bag. It just… existed. Just like him. It existed half finished and no longer cared for.

Maybe he was standing on the sidewalk of this New York street in front of a foreign building because the prospect of actually having someone to talk to, _really_ talk to was too much to pass up. He didn't know. All he knew was that the girl's apartment was number Six B and before he could think too much he pressed the button.

"Yeah?" A voice came through the intercom.

"Uh, Melinda?"

"Kurt? I'll buzz you in, come on up."

He could have left then. He wanted to leave then. But he didn't. He found himself walking up the stairs of the apartment block. With each step forward the desire to turn back grew stronger. But for some reason he didn't.

"Kurt! Hi!" The tiny brunette answered the door with a smile.

Kurt gave a half smile in return and she opened the door wide for him to walk in. He looked around the apartment. It was even smaller than Blaine's. The kitchen and living room was one big room, with no real indication of where one started at the other began. On the wall directly opposite him where two identical doors. He assumed one was the bathroom and the other the bedroom.

"Yep, welcome to my, ah, humble abode." She said. "Emphasis on the humble."

"It's lovely." He meant it. The place looked lived in. In a tolerable way, not the 'I'm wading in three feet of garbage' way. There were several newspapers strewn across the table in the kitchen, and even more magazines across the counter. A couple of dirty dished were piled up in the sink and in the living room area there was a messy pile of dvds and cushions and a quilt thrown over the couch, a laptop left open and running sat on the coffee table. His mind wandered to his own apartment. It was cold and bare. White and grey everywhere, and there was not a thing out of place. He often felt like a stranger in his own place.

Melinda shrugged. "You do what you can I suppose."

"Yeah, right."

"Well, can I get you anything? Food? A drink? Make yourself comfy on the couch, ok?"

"I'm ok." He gingerly approached the old worn couch. He pushed a few cushions aside and sat primly on the edge of it.

She busied herself in the kitchen for a moment. When she turned to him she laughed. "Kurt, you look like you're about to bolt away. Honestly, treat this like you would your own place. Here, I got you glass of water in case you want it." She set it down on the coffee table in front of him.

"Thank you." For show only, he settled a little further back in the couch. "Why did you invite me here?" He asked.

She shrugged. "I don't really know." That was a lie, she did, but she wasn't sure how well 'I'm trying to see if I can find a way to get you and Blaine to see clearly and understand that you guys _belong_ together' would go down. "I just… got the feeling you could use someone to hang out with."

He didn't say anything.

"Kurt, I'm a friend ok? I swear. I'm not out to get you, or use you or anything like that."

"In my experience, there's no such thing."

**X X X**

Tyler had refused to let Blaine pay for the cab, insisting that because he was the one who had asked Blaine out, he had to pay for everything. As soon as they'd stepped out onto the sidewalk, he grabbed Blaine's hand.

"The world needs to know that you are with me and there's nothing they can do about it." Tyler said, giving Blaine's hand a squeeze.

Blaine ducked his head to try and hide the fact he was blushing quite severely.

The restaurant was nice. Fancy, but not uncomfortably so. There were no more forks than usual on the table, which for Blaine, was a relief. But it still had an air of 'you are classy if you eat here'. Basically, Blaine approved of it as a place for a first date. The entire time the waitress lead them to their table (a more private one towards the back of the place) Tyler didn't let go of his hand (which he could feel was clammy and sweaty and entirely unappealing, so he valued to gesture even more).

As they took their seats, water was poured out for them and they were both handed menus.

Then the awkwardness set in.

They were on a date. An actual date. Together.

They worked together. If this went terribly wrong it would be incredibly awkward for both of them.

Blaine suddenly struggled for something to talk about. His eyes wandered around the restaurant looking for something as a point of reference for conversation. When there was nothing he decided to stare at his menu.

It had never been like this with Kurt. They were never short on anything to say…

He needed to stop comparing guys to Kurt. This was _Tyler_ an incredible (hot) guy, who actually seemed to be interested in him.

"Your friend seems nice." Tyler said.

"Huh?" Blaine looked up at him.

"Mel? I think her name is..."

"Oh, yeah. She's great." He grinned. He was glad Tyler liked Blaine. If Mel had made a good impression on him, she must have changed her mind about him after all (because when he'd initially mentioned the date, she'd had a look that could murder on her face).

"How did you guys meet?"

"Its a... strange story."

"I like strange. Well, sometimes."

Blaine shook his head. "No really. It involves lapse in judgement, alcohol and the fact that she's extremely persuasive. And attractive... for a girl, I suppose."

Tyler laughed. "Yeah she is. I was honestly shocked when I opened the door. I hadn't pictured her being so hot."

Blaine just nodded. Apparently tact was not something Tyler possessed. _Oh yeah, just go on about how hot you think my female best friend is while on a date with me. Awesome.__  
_  
"She said she had plans tonight with some guy."

Blaine interest suddenly perked up. "What? She didn't say anything to me." he said. He felt a little insulted. Mel had said she was just having a Friday night in by herself. Why had she lied?

"Yeah... Kurt, she said his name was. Isn't that the guy you know? Are you mutual friends?"

His heart plummeted. "Kurt? Maybe... maybe you misheard her. You had to have, they don't know each other. Not really."

Tyler shook his head. "No she definitely said Kurt. She also told me not to tell you. Like she wanted to hide it… are you ok? You look a little pale."

"I-I'm fine. You know I think we should get the merlot, treat ourselves for a change, yeah."

"Ok... anyway, I had my first weird fan experience the other day."

As Tyler launched into a story that had something to do with a girl standing in front of him screaming, Blaine tuned out. He couldn't help it. What was going on? Mel was hanging out with Kurt? That... that couldn't be right. She wouldn't... she wouldn't do that. Would she? She was supposed to be on his side. Kurt broke his heart not the other way around. Kurt was the one to end it all, leaving him a shattered broken mess. Mel wasn't supposed to go being all friendly toward him. How had they even gotten in contact with each other? What was going on?

"And she said she's named her fish after me. One is Tyler the other is Blake. You know, cause I have two first names. It's awesome."

Blaine nodded and forced a smile. "Yeah, awesome. Having a solid fanbase is important in the industry."

"Yeah... right." Tyler frowned.

The waitress came over and took their orders, Blaine made sure he got the bottle of wine. Screw his no alcohol stance, because he only ever did stupid things as a result of drinking. He needed it tonight. He'd just be careful and not drink too much.

"Can you excuse me for a moment?" he asked Tyler once she left, getting up out of his seat.

Blaine headed to the bathroom and pulled out his phone, quickly bringing up a familiar number. It rang several times before anyone picked up.

"Hello?"

"Mel?"

There was music playing softy in the background. Blaine was sure it sounded like some kind of show tune.

"Blaine, hi! How's the date going?"

"Alright. How's the movie watching?"

"Oh I'm… having a break from that right now. Listening to some Patti LuPone. Did you know she's incredible?"

"What? Since when did you like Broadway?"

"Um, always."

She was lying to him. He knew it. He could just tell.

"You should go back to your date Blaine." She said. "He's really cute and I approve of him."

"I will. I just want to ask you a question, and I want you to answer honesty. Ok?"

"O...k..."

"Is Kurt with you?" he asked

"I... uh..." she stuttered. "N-no. What would make you ask that?"

"I said answer honestly Mel. Is he there."

"How did you... oh. That _jerk_ told you? I told him not to."

"Yeah, he did." Blaine skipped around the jerk comment. "What the hell Mel? How could you?"

"Just let me explain."

"There's nothing to explain. You're a traitor of a friend you know that? He broke my heart and you're suddenly best friends with him? What is wrong with you?"

"Blaine..."

"No. Forget it."

He hung up abruptly. He was absolutely fuming. How could she do that? He hated her. He was sick of people betraying him. He'd given two people in his life his complete trust, and both of them had an abused it. He pocketed his phone and took a deep breath. He tried to calm himself down for a moment before heading back to the table. The wine had been poured and he took a long gulp.

"Woah, you alright man?" Tyler gave him a concerned look.

"I'm fine." Blaine said calmly. "Just pretty over people that like going behind your back and stabbing you."

Tyler nodded. "Yeah, I hear ya man. Girls' right? Who needs em?"

Blaine held up his glass. "Hear, hear."

**X X X**

"So I take it Blaine knows I'm here?" Kurt asked in a timid voice.

Mel nodded. "Yep. He's pretty mad at me. He uh... I don't think he's gotten over you yet."

Kurt's expression darkened. "He got over me years ago."

Mel settled back down on the couch and faced Kurt. "He wouldn't tell me what happened between you two."

Kurt shrugged. "There's not much to say. People change and drift apart. Long distance just doesn't work. Personally, I think we were foolish to try in the first place."

"Yeah, see, he implied nearly the same thing. But that doesn't explain what actually happened."

"I don't want to talk about it." Kurt said shortly.

"He said you broke his heart. Judging from how he acted when you first called, I'd believe it." The words were virtually spilling out of her mouth without permission. She supposed, in a way, there wasn't as much to lose from interrogating Kurt. If he pushed her away because he didn't want to talk about it, it wasn't like she was losing a friend.

Kurt laughed bitterly. It was a strange hollow sound and Melinda automatically hated hearing it. "Blaine was not the one with a broken heart."

She frowned. "But... he... I mean, Kurt, you didn't see him. You can't comprehend what he was like after that call. I'd never seen him like that. Not once, and I've been worried about him ever since. Something about him as been different. He's so much more distant, and I haven't even realised that was possible."

There was curiosity in Kurt's expressive eyes. Mel could see the questions that were bugging him. And a hint of something else... yes, if she wasn't mistaken, Kurt still cared a lot for Blaine. More than he'd probably ever admit. Her heart broke for the two of them. How had they ended up this way?

"You must be mistaken then." he said.

Mel bit her lip, holding back from spilling everything about the night she'd come home to Blaine being drunk out of his mind and rambling on and on about how amazing Kurt was.

"So, what do you do?" she asked, making a point of her topic change.

Kurt blinked and the rapid change, and shrugged. "Not much."

"Are you homeless?"

Kurt raised an eyebrow, a move that looked like he'd practiced to perfection. "Do I _look _homeless?" he asked.

"Then you must do something. Unless, you're someone's bitch and they pay for your Armani jackets. Oh yes," She noticed the look Kurt gave her. "I noticed."

"I'm no ones bitch." Kurt said. "How did you know it was Armani?"

"I was once an aspiring fashion journalist."

"And now?"

"I freelance for mostly online magazines and blogs, but work part time for a newspaper. I'm only in the office a couple of hours a week though. You never answered my question. What do _you_ do?"

He shrugged. "I struggle to write screenplays."

"And can afford designer clothes?"

He paused. "Sometimes."

"… Right." Her eyebrow was the one raised this time. Her writing career wasn't struggling (just, not exactly going anywhere) and her apartment was the most she could afford. She was aware of what regular working screen writers earned. There was no way…

"My uh..." he paused for a moment. "Undefined relationship, sort of, person, is uh... generous. Often."

"You _are_ someone's bitch." she smirked.

Kurt went red. "Stop saying that. God, I don't even know why I'm telling you all this stuff."

"What? Kurt you've told me barely anything about yourself."

"I've told you more than I've told Blaine."

She could just sense what he was implying and she reached across to put a hand on his knee. "Relax Kurt, I swear I won't tell him anything. Besides, he probably won't want to speak to me again now. Or at least, not until I'm at his knees grovelling."

Kurt placed a hand over hers. "Thank you. You're a very kind person."

She grimaced. "Actually, I'm not. Usually, I'm kind of a bitch."

"I find that hard to believe."

"Well, Blaine is, honestly the only real friend I have. Oh sure, there was a time where I would have stabbed him in the back to get what I wanted. Like Tyler, for example. Far out, a year ago I would have totally screwed over Blaine for a chance with hottie mchotpants in a red tie. But now..."

"Wait, what about Tyler?"

"Blaine's kind of..." she hesitated. Should she tell him? She quickly went with yes, if there was any chance jealousy could reignite the spark between the two of them, she needed to take the risk. "On a date with this guy. Who is gorgeous, by the way."

"Tall, blonde hair, a smile several kilowatts bright?"

"Yes... how did you..."

"We met, briefly. Blaine's on a date with him?" Kurt sounded confused, which was not what she wanted. He was supposed be raging in jealousy at Blaine being out with another man. Instead he just seemed puzzled.

"Yes?"

"Why?" His brow was creased in puzzlement.

She shrugged. "From what I know, Blaine's had a massive dry spell, Tyler's cute, asked him out and… there you go. I'm not happy about it either, but it is what it is."

"But... he has a girlfriend."

"I'm not Blaine's girlfriend?"

"I meant Tyler."

"Oh. Wait, how could he have a girlfriend? Are you sure?"

"Yes, he said 'this is my girlfriend' I can't remember her name now. But that's irrelevant. She was definitely his girlfriend."

"So... there's still hope for me then? If he likes girls as well?" she grinned. Easy, get Blaine and Kurt to get together, show Tyler that he needed her and not anyone else. Everyone wins.

"Melinda, he's on a date with Blaine."

"That won't be forever. Blaine will start comparing him to you and break it off..." she trailed off at the end, noticing Kurt's suddenly wide eyes. "Um, forget I said that. _Please_ forget I said that."

"I..." Kurt's voice sounded strangled as he tried to find something to say. "What?"

Mel sighed. "I'm only going to tell you this because I... I think it will do the both of you good. Blaine's still in love with you Kurt."

"Huh?" his face had now gone completely blank.

"Blaine was telling me that, well, that the reason he struggled to maintain any sort of relationship with another guy was because… he always compared them to you. That something would come up, they would do or say something and suddenly all Blaine could think about was how it was so similar to something you would do, or how it was the complete opposite of something you would say."

"But he..."

"I don't know what happened between you. Because neither of you will tell me. But I do know he's in love with you and I know there's a reason you're here, I don't mean fate sort of crap. You came here looking for something, you must have. Even if you haven't admitted it to yourself."

Kurt went silent. He stared at his hands in his lap, and Mel wondered what was going through his mind at what she'd just told him.

Then there was a loud banging on the door.

"Mel! Open up!" the voice was loud and angry.

Mel jumped up immediately and opened the door. "What the hell Blaine. Trying to get me evicted? I already got a warning last week."

"I want answers."

"To what questions?"

"Why... why the fuck are you befriending him?" Blaine had stepped into the apartment. "You're not supposed to. You're supposed to be on my side. You're supposed to _hate_ him."

"Hate me?" Kurt stood up. "Why?"

"She's my friend. Mine. Not yours and I refuse to let you take anything else away from me Kurt. Because that's all you are. A taker. I gave you everything I possibly could and you took it all and left me with nothing. Nothing."

"You're one to talk Blaine Anderson. Whatever you were giving me you were giving those other guys. How do you think that made me feel?"

Blaine was about to yell back but stopped. The fury on his face was replaced with confusion. "Huh? What other guys?"

"The ones you were slutting around with."

"_You_ were the one slutting around. I use to use facebook, I was a teenager once. Do you have any idea how it felt to see that three days after you broke up with me you had some new guy on your arm? To realise you dumped me for another guy? And you had the audacity to lie about it."

"I guess the date went well." Mel muttered to herself under her breath. She quietly slipped into her bedroom to give them privacy.

"I didn't lie about anything. I asked you about Justin and you lied. There were pictures of you kissing and you lied to me about it."

"Who the _hell_ is Justin?"

"Oh god, were there that many of them you can't even remember anymore? Justin… the Afro guy. Your roommate?"

"Woah, wait, you mean Justin my roommate for my first semester of college?"

"Yes. You cheated on me with him."

"_He _ kissed _me_ and it was a _dare_. I told you that. I was never interested in him. You were just that freaking insecure, you couldn't believe me."

"Oh please, you glowed whenever you mentioned him."

"You're making that up in your deluded head. What wasn't imaginary was the way you smiled whenever you said Cedric's name."

"He had the same name as a Harry Potter character of course I was going to smile whenever I said his name. I couldn't believe I actually met someone called Cedric."

"Well you sure talked about a _lot_."

"At least I never kissed him."

"Why would I cheat on you Kurt? Give me one possible reason. One that's actually legit. Because, you were the best thing to ever happen to me. Ever. Why would I have screwed that up?"

Kurt suddenly realised their proximity. At some point in their argument they'd moved to close to be almost nose-to-nose. Both were breathing heavily and anger lit up in their eyes. And yet, right then and there Blaine was the most stunning Kurt had ever seen him.

No one initiated it. It just happened. In a moment they were pressed up against each other in a heated kiss.

**A/N: 1. Little bit of revelation as to what happened with Kurt and Blaine back in the day. It's based a little bit off a relationship breakdown I'm witnessing in my own life, where they both currently have **_**completely**_** different perspectives as to what's going on. It's actually really sad. But yeah, I wanted to reveal a little of what actually happened between them, and uh… I'm a drama junkie, so naturally, it had to be a little over the top. Hopefully it's not too much. **

**2. If Tyler were the main character of this fic, he'd pretty much be a male mary sue (Gary-stu? I'm not sure). Basically, everyone seems to love him, but I don't know why. Thankfully, Kurt has remained sane from the force that is Tyler. **

**3. The record number of reviews for a chapter with this fic is 16 (whaaaat? The **_**insanity **_**of that!) want to try and beat it? I mean… we do have Klaine kisses (not in the form of a flashback)… that's incentive right? **

**Right? **

**Thanks for reading! **


	9. Chapter Eight

**A/N: I spy with my little eye a slight AVPM reference in here somewhere? Points if you spot it. (though I'm amazed a resisted for so long to be perfectly honest).**

**Your reviews make me smile so much. Honestly. I'm like 'arghh! Uni stress! Hair pulling! Hate life!' And then I read your reviews and I'm like 'yay! Peoples on the internet I don't know appreciate me.' :). Seriously. They make my day. Always.**

**Also, I've decided if there's going to be a 'theme song' for this fic it's _No One's Gonna Love You by Band of Horses_. Look it up. It's a beautiful song… one of those ones you can just put on repeat and never stop listening to. But I feel like it kind of reflects Kurt and Blaine in this fic.**

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Without even opening his eyes, Kurt knew he was in a foreign bed. Yes, there was undeniably something about it that _smelt_ familiar… but the bed itself was strange to him. The way his body sunk into the mattress, and the way pillows seemed to surround him. This wasn't his bed in Los Angeles, but it didn't have the stiffness of the hotel bed he'd been sleeping in for the past week.

The next thing he became aware of was something vibrating against his leg. He tried his best to ignore it, but it was insistent. He let out a groan when he realised he'd slept in his skinny jeans. No wonder he was uncomfortable. With his phone vibrating against one leg, and pins and needles shooting it up the other, it no longer baffled him that he'd woken up.

Still without opening his eyes he grabbed at his phone, squirming to get it out of his pocket. Just as he managed to do so, it stopped ringing.

He forced his eyes open, squinting in the bright light of the room. He took a glance around. There was something familiar about the room he was in… but in his still half asleep state, he couldn't work it out.

Just as he was unlocking his phone to get to his voicemail it hit him. Last night and what had taken place. It didn't feel real. Had it been real? Had it actually happened?

He could still hear Blaine's voice, slightly breathless and frustrated "_Stop. This isn't right._" And yes, it had been real, because the pain of Blaine's rejection couldn't be something he imagined.

He'd refused to talk after that. He didn't want to talk. Why didn't Blaine get that? He didn't want to talk out every single aspect of his life, and his emotions. He just wanted to live it, feel it. He just wanted to forget everything and be with Blaine again. Just once more.

He needed to stop thinking about it.

He pulled up his phone. It had been Rachel Berry that had called him. Why on earth had Rachel called him? He hadn't spoken to the girl directly in such a long time (a year or more at least). But he found himself listening to her voice message anyway.

"_Hi Kurt, it's me, Rachel, Berry that is… well, not for much longer. But I'm sure you heard the exciting news. Isn't it terrific! Anyway, that's why I'm calling. You did such a great job with your Dad's that I was wondering if I could employ your skills. Well, not actually employ, I'm hoping you'll do it for free, especially since it's the kind of thing you love. I already spoke to Finn and he said that's fine as long as you don't make him wear anything glittery. Well get back to me, we have so much to discuss and so little time to actually do it all._ _How are you by the way? I hope you're well. Bye!_"

That was… strange.

He didn't get another chance to dwell on it further because the bedroom door was opened and Blaine tiptoed in. He froze when he saw Kurt sitting up in the bed.

"Oh… you're awake."

Kurt nodded. He didn't know what to say. It was like the awkward morning after, only they hadn't even slept together. He couldn't help but be bitter about that.

"I'm just going to um, take a shower." Blaine said. "Um… feel free to have anything in the fridge, and the TV and… yeah…"

Kurt nodded silently again. Once Blaine had shut the door to the bathroom behind him, Kurt fell back onto the bed with a heavy sigh.

What was wrong with him?

As soon as he heard the water turn on, he hurried out of the bedroom. The last thing he needed was _those_ images plaguing his mind. He fell ungracefully on to the couch, still clutching his phone in his hand. Now would be a good time to leave, and avoid any conversation Blaine might want to have with him. But Kurt couldn't bring himself to go anywhere.

He decided to call Rachel back.

She picked up on the third ring.

"Kurt!" She exclaimed happily.

"Hi, I got your message."

"Oh, good. So… will you? I already have a colour theme picked our, fuchsia and yellow, it'll be just fabulous don't you think? Oh and-

"I'm going to stop you right there." Kurt interrupted. "For starters, fuchsia and yellow? No. Not at all. That… my eyes hurt just thinking about it. Secondly… _what_ is this for? You were really vague on the details."

"Oh." She sounded disappointed. "I thought you would have known. I mailed out the invitations last week, and Finn said you helped him pick out the ring."

"He did it already?" Kurt sounded genuinely shocked.

About a month ago Finn had called him frantically, freaking out because '_dude, there are so many types of diamonds, and since when did rings have different sizes? I thought they were like hats… one size fits all._' so he'd flown back to Lima for a weekend (and it was good to see his Dad and Carol) to help Finn pick out the 'perfect' ring for Rachel. But, the way Finn had spoken about it had made it sound like he wasn't planning on proposing for a while yet. He just wanted to be ready for when the time did come (that and, apparently there was some sort of pregnancy scare… that apparently had made Finn realise he wanted to spend the rest of his life with Rachel, or something like that).

Rachel squealed. "It was _so_ romantic. You have no idea. This lovely little picnic by the lake, and it was a full moon and… he was so jittery and nervous and just Finn. I mean, he didn't exactly get the words 'will you marry me' out, he just ended up showing me the ring. But it was amazing. He was on one knee and everything."

Kurt was so glad he didn't have to fake a smile, because he wasn't sure if he could. Once again, Rachel Berry's life had turned out perfectly, the way she had planned, while his was a mess.

"So..." Rachel prompted.

"What?"

"Will you help me plan everything? The wedding is in six months. I don't really see the point in a very long engagement. And a spring wedding will be _gorgeous_. Are you still sure about the fuchsia? Does the time of year make a difference? I really want fuchsia."

"Uh..." He didn't know what to say. His life was... not anything he was proud of. Really, _Rachel Berry _was getting _married _and he could barely keep a semi-functional relationship. Was he really that pathetic? "I don't know. Right now things are-

Rachel let out an exasperated sigh. "This isn't about you Kurt. This is about me and whether or not my wedding will be perfect. I don't see how you can expect me to trust some stranger I've never met with the single most important day of my life. It'll be all wrong!" she wailed.

Kurt couldn't help but smile a little then. From Rachel Berry, that was pretty much a real compliment.

"I'll see what I can do." he was a little annoyed at himself for caving so quickly. "Can I call you back later?" he asked.

The bedroom door had opened and Blaine had stepped out (Kurt did everything he could to not focus on the fact his hair was still wet and dripping from the shower, he was mad at Blaine. Not focusing on how well the last six years had treated him, physically at least).

"Yes. Absolutely. Thank you so much."

"Alright, bye." he hung up abruptly, thankful for the conversation ending and stared at Blaine who gave him a questioning eyebrow raise. "That was Rachel." he clarified.

"Rachel?" Blaine's face was blank for a moment. "Berry? You still talk to her?"

Kurt shrugged. "Not really. She and Finn just got engaged. So… I guess soon she'll technically be my… step-sister in law?"

"Huh." Blaine said, heading towards the kitchen.

"She wants me to plan the wedding."

Blaine turned back to him. "Are you going to?"

"Maybe." Kurt shrugged. "I don't know."

"You love that sort of thing though right? Do you want something to eat?" He opened the fridge.

Kurt opened his mouth to respond and stopped suddenly. Shocked by how casually the conversation between them had been flowing. It was effortless, like nothing had changed, and nothing had happened (or, _almost_ happened) last night. It scared him a little.

"I uh… no. No thanks."

Blaine turned away from the fridge to look at Kurt. His expression also suddenly changed, like he'd noticed it as well and suddenly the entire apartment was filled with discomfort.

"Right. Yeah, ok."

"In fact I uh, I should go." He had no desire to linger around any longer than he had. He still wasn't entirely sure what he was doing in New York at all. His home was Los Angeles, the other side of the country, far away from Blaine. All he was really certain of was that one moment he'd been getting yelled at by Blaine over the phone. The next, he'd tracked down his apartment was standing in front of it.

Blaine spun around quickly to face him. "Don't." He said hurriedly.

Kurt paused. "Give me a reason to stay."

"Can't we try? To… fix this in some way?"

"Blaine…" He knew he sounded like he was in pain just saying his name. "It's too… just…"

"You weren't _just_ my boyfriend. You were my best friend. I still…" He broke eye contact and stared at the floor. "I miss you. A lot."

Kurt's heart thudded loudly in his chest hearing that. Part of him hated that Blaine was still able to have such an effect on him. The rest of him could only focus on the fact that he knew Blaine couldn't have missed him as much as he missed him. There weren't words for how much Kurt missed Blaine.

"How?" The words slipped from his mouth without him even thinking about it. "Where would we even begin?"

Blaine took several steps towards him. Hope shone in his eyes, making him look more alive than Kurt had seen him since he first arrived in New York.

"I have no idea. But I think honesty is a good start. Why did you call me? That first time… why?"

He froze. Then shook his head. "Nope. I'm leaving. Bye."

"Kurt!" Blaine quickly grabbed his wrist.

Kurt flinched involuntarily and pulled himself away from Blaine's grasp.

"I don't know what you want to hear from me Blaine." He said.

"I just need to know why you called."

"My finger hit the wrong button."

"Don't lie to me Kurt. Please. What happened?"

"Maybe, maybe I just needed someone to be there for me. Maybe I just assumed that after everything we went through together you might actually be someone who could listen, and hell, maybe even help. But all I got was you hanging up on me. Maybe it was a good thing because I realised how ridiculous I was being. Why would… why would some guy who I used to know once want to listen to me cry over how pathetic my life is over the phone? Really? I don't know why I came here, honestly. Maybe I was… maybe I was somehow hoping your life was as pathetic as mine." He shook his head. "Of course it isn't. You're Blaine freaking Anderson."

Blaine ran a hand through his hair and sighed. "Have you seen my personal life? For the past year I've been in some weird, non-relationship with a girl when I'm not even attracted to her because I'm just… one hundred per cent gay. The only guy who's shown any interest in me in the past… God, I don't even know how long may or may not speak to me again and that's about it. That's the extent of my personal life. The little of it there is, is so screwed up."

"At least they care about you." Kurt said softly. "Mel… Mel speaks very fondly of you and… you wouldn't be able to hurt Tyler if he didn't actually care about you. Do you want to know what I have?"

Blaine nodded mutely.

**X X X**

_Two weeks ago. _

It had been a long unproductive day for Kurt. He'd spent four hours sitting at his usual table, in the corner, by the window of the _Sweet Tea_ café, where he could watch the passer bys (and envy their lives).

He'd written about two sentences. You'd think it would have been easy. Writing something based on the drama that went on in his High School, and Glee club. But every time he tried he was filled with such a deep, painful, nostalgia. He couldn't help but think about the people from that time of his life. What were they doing with their lives now? Were they happy? Married? Did they have kids? Did they have everything he never would?

And the spiral of self-pity would continue and it was impossible for him to continue to try and write about the insane, diva antics of Rachel Berry (or Rochelle Apple as his character was currently named… it was a work in progress).

He wanted to crash on his couch and mindlessly watch TV until he fell asleep, only to repeat the same pattern tomorrow. However, as soon as he unlocked the door to his apartment, he knew that wasn't going to happen.

"Karl." He stopped short in his doorway, staring at the man lounging across the couch. "I… I wasn't expecting you."

Piercing blue eyes flickered over to him from under midnight black (dyed that way) hair. A smile crept across his face.

"You need to find a better spot for your spare key. I found it far too easily."

Kurt raised an eyebrow but said nothing.

"Come over here."

Gently, Kurt sat his laptop bag by the door, before closing it. He walked over to Karl, who sat up and gently pulled Kurt in for a kiss.

"I got you something."

"I told you to stop buying me things."

Karl smirked. "Wait til you see what it is. If you honestly don't want it, I'll return it."

He produced a dark grey box and held it out to Kurt, who gingerly took it. His hands shook a little as he slowly lifted the lid.

He couldn't control the gasp that escaped him. Out of the corner of his eyes he could see Karl's grin widen. It was a deep forest green, double-breasted, woollen, Armani coat. One he'd actually had his eye on for a while. And it was right within his grasp.

"Do I have good taste or what?"

"I…" His voice was caught, he wanted to cry. What sort of torture was this? He wanted it, so much. But fifteen hundred dollars was too much for him to spend on a jacket.

"Kurt," Karl brought is finger to Kurt's chin and lifted his face so he had to look at him. "It'll bring out the green in your eyes."

'_Your eyes change colour. Did you know that?'_

'_I did. What's your favourite?'_

'_The green. Definitely the green.' _

He pushed the conversation of long ago out of his mind quickly.

"I don't want it." Kurt said, he hated the shake in his voice as he did, he put the lid back on the box and tried to hand it back to Karl.

"Yes you do. Don't lie to me."

"This is expensive." He said.

"Yeah, I know."

He hated himself for considering it. "What do you want?"

"Kurt." Karl fixed his gaze on him, the sincerity in his eyes was a look Kurt had seen before. It was manufactured and fake. It was the result of growing up acting, not real sincerity. "I just want _you_. Why can't you see that? I love you Kurt."

"No. No you don't. You love using me. You think I'll stick around as long you keep buying me stupid expensive things. You think I'm that desperately needy that I'll put up with pretending this is a _real_ relationship. You think I'll just keep forgetting about the girls the paparazzi catch you with, because you're too goddamn scared to tell the world who you really are."

"I'm not scared!" Karl folded his arms across his chest. "But you know what damage it could do to my career."

"This jacket." Kurt gestured to the box. "Is my silence."

"No it-

"Let's stop pretending the elaborate gifts are because you're generous. This is my silence. But if you don't come out soon… I can't stay in this relationship… if that's what this even is."

"Kurt, I don't think you get it."

"No, Karl. I get it just fine. It would be _such_ a scandal to find out that Karl Sheppard; TV Heartthrob has secretly been seeing a no one, wannabe, _male_ screenwriter. I'm tired of being strung along."

There was a strange glint in Karl's eye. "No you're not. You like the idea, and the feeling that you're wanted. You don't give a shit what I do, as long as at the end of the day I'm there, in your bed. You can try and walk away, again. But you'll just come crawling back, again. No one else is going to give you what I give you and you know it. As soon as you give up on the idea of who you want to be and admit who you are, you'll realise that."

He shoved the box further into Kurt's hands and stood up.

"You're in a pissy mood, I get it. I'll see you later." He gave Kurt a rough kiss on the lips, and Kurt tried desperately to blink back tears.

The door of the apartment slammed shut and Kurt was suddenly powerless to the tears. The shame of where his life was, compared to what he'd once imagined was suddenly unburied from that dark, dank part of him he always pushed it to.

He could pinpoint the moment everything spiralled down from. It was the moment he realised the aching pain in his chest was from missing Blaine. Blaine, who was on the other side of the country. Blaine who probably had everything together. Some amazing, gorgeous guy who would hold his hand and kiss him in public. A thriving career in whatever he'd pursued. Because Blaine was Blaine… and made everyone he ever met love him.

Before he could think about what he was doing, Kurt had pulled out his phone. It was a long shot. But maybe, just maybe, Blaine _hadn't_ changed his number in the past six years (unlike himself, who had changed it several times since).

There were six rings and then,

"Hello, Blaine speaking."

Kurt froze. He hadn't… he hadn't thought this through. What was he doing? He'd tried to not even think about Blaine for the past six years and now… he was on the other end of the phone.

"Hello?"

More tears spilled from his eyes. He sounded exactly the same. Kurt meant to take a deep breath to try and compose himself, but a sob escaped instead.

"Blaine?"

There was nothing for a moment. And then he was met with the dial tone. He collapsed into tears.

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**A/N: 1. There we go. Kurt's POV of what happened. I sort of really, passionately hate Karl. Like a lot. I'm a little bit like '**_**Yeah, buddy, you wouldn't even exist if it weren't for plot purposes!'**_**. Unfortunately… he's going to pop up again. At the very least once more. Which I'm annoyed at because I don't like him at all. **

**2. On the bright side, I have the rest of this fic roughly planned out. I only say roughly cause often character's get away from me and make up their own storylines. But… I know a few key happenings and where I want it to end. So… yay! I don't know how much of this story if left though. I'd guess we're at about the halfway mark… but really, you never know. **

**3. Also, I'm thinking of writing Kurt and Blaine's break up as a one-shot. Because I don't think I'll be able to fit it into this fic well. Let me know if you'd read it and I might write it up when I can and post it :). **


	10. Chapter Nine

**A/N: Wow! We're nearly at 100 reviews. Honestly? I'm not really sure how that happened. But thank you so much every single one of you. I honestly, really appreciate it, so much! **

**Also, I've started a new fic called 'Days Without You'. Basically, Kurt is Beth's father and Shelby is Blaine's aunt, it's Klaine (duh). If you're intrigued/slightly weirded out by that, I suggest you go and read it ;)**

**This chapter's short, and is kind of more of a transitional chapter, but hopefully it's a nice break from the hecticness of the last few. The next one will be longer (and more eventful).**

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Blaine felt his jaw slacken as Kurt retold the story. His version of events. He could see Kurt trying desperately to keep back tears and Blaine felt his own throat closing up. He felt a rage stronger than he had in a long time and there was an overwhelming desire to fine Karl and punch the living daylights out of him.

He didn't know what to do. His instinct told him to grab Kurt in a bone-crushing hug and never let him go. That was what he wanted to do, he could feel his muscles twitching as he restrained himself. Because, he knew it would be pushing a boundary that couldn't be crossed yet. That Kurt wasn't ready to (and if he was honest, Blaine wasn't entirely sure he was ready to either). Instead he forced himself to watch as Kurt tried to recompose himself.

"So there you go. My pathetic life." Kurt looked up and Blaine's emotions must have been written all over his face. "Don't feel sorry for me." He snapped.

Blaine shook his head. "I... I had no idea."

"Of course you didn't."

"But, it doesn't have to be that way for you. Not anymore. You know that right?"

Kurt shrugged and avoided looking at him. "There's no guarantee."

Blaine couldn't help himself any longer as he reached out and grabbed Kurt's hand in his. He ignored the jolt that shot through him at the simple contact. It wasn't the time for _those_ feelings, which he had no desire to dwell on at the moment. Right now, Kurt was a friend first. And _nothing_ more.

"You _don't_ have to put yourself through that anymore."

"What other choice do I have? I don't have anything else."

"Stay here." Blaine said, the words were coming out of his mouth before he could think about them. "In New York. Maybe you just need to be someplace fresh to find the right idea for a screenplay. Or you could do something else all together, you just need to be in a new place. You're only twenty-five, it's not like it's too late for that. You don't have to go back to LA."

"And where exactly in New York would I be staying? Don't know if you caught it, but, I'm not exactly rolling in cash. I can't stay in the hotel I'm in for much longer. In fact, I was going to book a flight back out on Monday."

"Stay here. Like, literally, _right_ here." Blaine said, his heart was racing at the idea of Kurt staying in the city, potentially in his apartment. It was a mix of excitement and nerves, he couldn't place which one was stronger. "I don't mind, really. You can stay for as long as you need to."

"Blaine," Kurt sighed and pulled his hand away from Blaine's. "I really don't think that that's a good idea. You can't honestly say that you do."

Blaine's mind flashed back to the previous night (which had so far gone completely unmentioned, which was probably a good thing) "You're right." Blaine admitted. "You can stay with Mel. She'll be fine with it."

"Mel? Whose apartment is about three square feet?"

"She's never there."

"She works from home!"

"No, she works from my home. She'll barely ever be there. I swear, she spends more time here than at her place. Kurt, do you want this or not? Because you have to do something. I don't know if I can just watch you walk back into that destructive life. Not now."

"Why do you even care?" Kurt stood up and had his defences up. "Why now all of a sudden do you care?"

Blaine sighed. " Because, now I actually know. It wouldn't have mattered if I found today, three years ago, or three years from now. My reaction would be the same. Will you get it through your head. I can't _not_ care about you. Because you're just... you. You're Kurt and it's like I'm biologically wired to care about you in some way. I... I can't watch you go back. Stay here. Please."

Kurt was weakened by Blaine's pleading voice, by the way he looked so desperate to do this. He was so sure it was a bad idea. He knew, somewhere deep down that he was still in love with Blaine, and always would be. His rejection last night had hurt more than he cared to admit. And, the thought of being so close to Blaine was both appealing and painful at the same time, he wasn't sure how wise it was to put himself through it. At least in LA, with Karl he could distract himself enough to forget about Blaine most days. Otherwise, it did sound good. To be able to stay in New York away from LA. Away from Karl away from everything he hated about himself.

Blaine took the silence positively. "Awesome, I'll talk to Mel. I uh, I have some apologizing to do anyway." Guilt squirmed in him as he thought about what he'd said to Mel the night before. The words were harsh, and uncalled for. "I'll go over there soon."

Kurt nodded. "Um, thank you Blaine. For... for everything. Really."

Blaine looked Kurt directly in the eye and smiled. "I'm always here for you. No matter what happens between us and how upset and angry we might be at each other. You know that. Always."

**X X X**

Saturday mornings were for long sleep ins in the world according to Mel. It was what they were purposed and created for. Without long sleep ins, there was no reason for Saturday to exist. So when there was knocking on her apartment door at (she quickly checked her phone) nine thirty am, she was thoroughly annoyed.

"Stupid people I hate you." she grumbled as she forced herself out from under the warm blankets. She ran a hand through her hair several times, even though she knew there was no saving the curly mess it became overnight without the help of a straightener. She didn't bother to look in a mirror. Anyone knocking on her door so early in the morning deserved to see her at her worst. If they couldn't take it, it was their problem.

She swung the door open, a scowl already on her face.

"What?" She snapped. Then her gaze travelled up to familiar hazel eyes. "Oh... Blaine. Hi." She folded her arms across her chest. She was still a little mad at him (madder at that stupid Tyler character though) and kept her tone short.

"Hi, Mel," he looked guilty and that was enough to soften her heart a little. "Uh, can I come in?"

"_Can_ you? I'd have dragged you in here with force you're unaware I have if I had to. You have explaining to do."

"Uh..."

She tugged on his arm and pulled him into the apartment.

"I expect an apology of course. Barging into my apartment and screaming at me isn't the most tactful thing you've ever done. But first," she forced him down on the couch. "What happened? Spill everything, spare no details."

"What do you mean?" he tried to play innocent, but a rebellious blush slowly crept up on his face giving him away immediately.

"Uh, you guys went from screaming at each other one moment to a heavy make out session the next. Or have you completely forgotten that I was actually here? Being that… this is my apartment and all. _And_ you left without even saying goodbye. That was rude."

"I... uh...didn't realise you saw that..."

"The screaming suddenly stopped and I was worried you might have killed each other, because honestly, it seemed likely. I backed back up into my room when I saw though." She left out the part where she'd stared, mouth hanging open in shock for at least a minute while they groped at each other.

Blaine gave a slight laugh. "Nothing happened," he said. "I uh, we stopped before it went too far."

Mel nodded and sat down next to him. "Are you ok?" she asked him.

He nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine just... I hadn't expected any of this, at all. And I really am sorry, by the way. I had no right to just, go off at you like that. I was just... I was upset that you lied to me. It hurt and I was… scared."

"Of what?"

"I don't know. It's stupid. That you would suddenly become really good friends with Kurt and he'd convince you I was the bad guy and I'd lose you." he let it all out in one breath. "Its stupid, I know. But I couldn't help it. I don't know what I'd do if… well, if that happened."

She shook her head. "Not stupid. Completely and utterly in your head, because I'd never leave you. I'm sorry to say, but, you're stuck with me for life. Deal with it. But it's not stupid."

"Oh, great." He said sarcastically, smirking at her. "So uh... how did you and Kurt get along anyway?" he asked nervously. What would happen if she said no to his request? Kurt could stay in his apartment… but… there was no knowing what could happen with that arrangement.

"Why?" she gave him a suspicious look. "Are you planning on getting back together? I can't say I didn't expect as much but-

"No." Blaine cut in quickly. "No... we just... no. I was just wondering."

"Because..."

"Kurt needs a place to stay," he blurted. "We agreed that he couldn't stay at mine because of, well, anyway. So I offered yours because Mel, he can't go back to LA. We just can't make him go back there."

Mel put a hand on Blaine's knee and squeezed it gently. "It's ok Blaine, he's more than welcome to stay here for as long as he needs to."

"Are you sure?"

"Absolutely. We got along quite well actually. Better than well. Kurt's actually pretty awesome."

Blaine couldn't help the smile that crept across his face. "You're awesome Mel." He said.

She grinned back. "Besides, now maybe I can finally have every girls fantasy of a gay best friend with impeccable taste in fashion to go shopping with. Because, let's face it, you're pretty hopeless at that."

Blaine's mouth fell open. "I read Vogue!"

"Your favourite piece of clothing is a hideous maroon cardigan Blaine. Just because you have the ability to flip through a magazine doesn't mean you know what fashion is."

"I really resent that."

"Maybe you should be the one shopping with Kurt."

"The cardigan isn't that bad."

"No, it really is."

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**A/N: As if you wouldn't want Kurt to be your best friend. I get a little jealous of Mercedes sometimes, if I'm honest. Thank you so much for reading! Two things I suggest you do is, review (lol) and check out my other fic (shameless self promotion). **


	11. Chapter Ten

**A/N: I don't know if 'EP' launches are a real thing. But for the sake of this fic, they are. Once again, I wrote the pathetic excuse for lyrics Tyler sings. Just um… pretend it's a good song, lol.**

**Also, surpassing 100 reviews? Far out! I love you guys!**

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Monday morning rolled around quickly. Blaine hadn't seen much of Kurt, or Mel as the moving in process had started and he wanted to stay out of the way.

And maybe, just maybe, he was sort of, kind of, wanting to avoid Kurt. What they'd done on Friday night was frozen into his memory. It was like he couldn't forget it, no matter how hard he tried. Even little mundane things reminded him of it. If he was getting out his keys, it was the way Kurt had kissed his neck while he tried to find them, and how his lips had felt, soft and warm against his skin. If he was taking a nap, it was the way Kurt had pushed him onto the bed, taking charge in a way he'd been too shy too when they were teenagers. Hell, if he was going to the fridge it was the way the next morning things had been almost normal. Aside from the initial shock of seeing Kurt in his bed (which had simultaneously broken him out of his sleepy haze and confusion of waking up on the couch, and sent a guilty shiver of pleasure through him) where things had been awkward, it had felt natural to converse with him from the kitchen while he was on the couch. It had felt… right.

To be honest, it all unnerved and scared Blaine. He'd simply forgotten, over time, how strong his feelings for Kurt were and now, only having spent a short time with him they were all coming back, quickly. He'd always chalked up what he felt for Kurt as a teenager heavily in lust, easily mistaking it for love. But he was realising quickly... that might not have been the case. The way Tyler made him giddy, and had his heart racing a little faster... that was lust. With Kurt it was... different. His heart didn't race a little faster. It stopped altogether.

He'd heard from Melinda that Kurt had settled in just fine. He didn't have much with him, but apparently was organising for a friend who lived near him to pack some essentials (clothes, most probably, and his difficult to find, pricey, organic hair products) and send them over, and he would fly back in about a week to get more of his stuff. On Sunday they'd had a marathon of movie musicals, which Blaine had been invited (pestered to no end about) to, but he'd declined.

It was another day in the studio. The launch of Tyler's EP was steadily approaching and they still had an unbelievable amount of work to do. As he'd walked into the office, Cassie handed him a bunch of papers and he groaned at the mere thought of paperwork. As if this day wasn't going to be bad enough.

He hadn't heard from Tyler all weekend and he wasn't convinced it was a good thing. He knew he'd made a poor impression. After the discovery of Mel and Kurt's 'secret' meeting things had gone downhill. Quickly. He actually couldn't remember anything they'd talked about, or what he'd eaten. He felt genuinely awful and embarrassed about it.

Tyler was already in the studio when he got there. Which surprised Blaine. He was on a stool gently strumming his guitar. Blaine took a moment to take it in.

In another life (or at least, in one where Kurt never came stumbling back into his life) he could have possibly had something with the young musician. He was deep in thought, staring ahead, as he strummed the same four chords over and over. His eyes were brighter than usual, his hair hadn't been done as carefully as it usually was, and stuck up at messy angles from his head. It suited him, almost breathtakingly so. He was wearing plain clothes, a white shirt that clung to him in a way that hinted teasingly at the body underneath, and dark jeans. His feet were bare and flip-flops rested on the floor just by the stool.

Blaine coughed, to let his presence be known.

The guitar stopped abruptly and Tyler looked over to him.

"Oh," he said. "Hi."

"Hey." Blaine felt uncomfortable. He didn't know how this conversation was going to go.

"I'm ready to get into things and get it done as quickly as possible." He said.

"Right." Blaine nodded.

"I have a new song."

"We already decided on-

"No. My album, my music, my say. We're doing this one. I want it straight up acoustic and raw so I'm ready when you are."

"You don't want to play the song for me first?"

"No."

Blaine raised his eyebrows. "Ok, let me just get ready and set everything up."

It only took about twenty minutes to have everything ready. Tyler sat in the booth one everything set up. Blaine nodded and he started playing. The sound was almost melancholy as he picked out the intro and then he started singing. The entire time he stared down at his guitar.

'_It doesn't take a blind man to see_

_That you're another delicate heart_

_That someone in your past_

_Handled you carelessly _

_And like the gravity that's pulling me to you_

You keep going back, back, to him'

Blaine couldn't be certain, in fact, he'd rather never know for sure, who the song was about. But he found himself unable to look at Tyler and instead focused on the buttons and dials in front of him.

'_It doesn't take the clueless to know_

_That you've been hurt once before_

_And you've been forced to close the door_

_That you've reached broken-hearted lows_

_And like the gravity that's pulling me to you_

You keeping going back, back to him.'

The chorus built up, and was more powerful than the verses had been. Tyler sang about how if he could just drop his pride he might be able to see how he had some fault in it, but it was easier to just blame Bla- the person he was singing about instead. The bridge dropped back from the power of the chorus and was softer, sadder.

'_I would have treated you like a gentleman should_

_But I suppose you were too hung up in the past_

_I guess that now, I've just acted like a fool_

You were always too hung up on him for this to last

_For this to last._'

As the song came to a close, they both looked up at the same time and Tyler's eyes met Blaine's in a pointed look as he repeated the line "_You were always too hung up on him for this to last. For this to last_."

Silence fell over the studio as the last chord rang out.

"I was flat on the second chorus."

Blaine didn't know what to say. He literally had no words. The look Tyler had given him confirmed what he'd feared from the first line of the song. No one had ever so blatantly written a song about him. Oh sure, there was that other one Tyler wrote. But that was more about how his ex-girlfriend had misinterpreted what she was seeing. This was...

So different, and so unsettling.

"In a moment." Blaine said. "Can you come out here for a moment?"

"No." Tyler shook his head. "I'm here, getting the song right, and then I'm leaving because I have better things to do."

"I'm pretty sure this company isn't paying for the production of this EP so you can bail when you see fit because of _'better things to do'_. Come out here."

"_I'm_pretty sure the company isn't paying you to waste studio time with mindless chatter."

"What's with the attitude?" Blaine folded his arms over his chest. He already had a suspicion about the answer to the question. But personal issues between them or not, Tyler was already starting to bug him.

"There's no attitude." Tyler huffed. "I just want to get this over with."

Blaine sighed and rubbed his forehead for a moment. "Look, we can just go back to doing what was originally scheduled."

"No. This song is better. Maybe Scott can produce it instead. He's better at it than you anyway. Actually knows what the fuck he's doing unlike you."

Blaine clenched his fist tightly and let out a low growl of frustration. He decided enough was enough. He got up out of his chair and walked into the booth.

"You have three options. One, shut up, play the song and get this thing done. Two, we can actually talk, you can give me a chance to apologise for everything because I do genuinely regret everything that happened. Or three, we can call off today and start again tomorrow. But you're not going to give me this sulky attitude fit for a teenager alright? It's unprofessional, frustrating and childish. It's up to you what you do. If you want to leave, go right ahead. But I can promise you Scott won't be impressed."

"I don't want your apology. You had all weekend and didn't say a damn thing, but then, I suppose you were probably too busy screwing that kid to be bothered."

"Kurt's older than you, so don't call him kid. And you don't know the situation so really, stop talking. Let's just get this song done alright?"

"He's not good for you. I mean, that much is obvious even to me."

"You don't know anything about him."

"I know he obviously hurt you. I know he's quite ready to drag you down to his level and will do it unapologetically. I know he's not me, and I know I could actually fix you if you just gave me a chance. You don't need him, you don't need to go crawling back to your past."

"Maybe you're right." Blaine said softly. "Maybe I don't need him. But _he_ needs _me_right now, and I'm not abandoning him. Just pick up the guitar and play the song."

"You're making a mistake." Tyler said as he picked up his guitar. Then, just like that, his demeanour changed, and suddenly he was smirking. "But you didn't deny the bit about screwing him all weekend."

Blaine felt his face heat up in a flush. "Just play the song."

**X X X**

Kurt's neck was stiff; it was the first thing he was aware of as consciousness slowly overtook his body again. The next thing he was aware of was the clattering of cutlery and plates from the kitchen two feet away.

He groaned as he stretched out his body, trying to get feeling back into his after a fitful, uncomfortable night curled up on the couch. They were going to buy a mattress today and he was ever so thankful. Because two nights on Mel's couch was two nights too many. But he wouldn't complain loudly. He was already beyond grateful for what she was doing for him.

"Oh, shoot, did I wake you up?" She asked when she turned around and saw him sitting up, massaging kinks out of his neck.

"Nah, you didn't."

"Well, good morning anyway."

"Good morning." He said, unable to help the smile that came across his face. Mel was easy to get along with. It was strange, he didn't usually warm up to strangers too easily, but she made it impossible for him to not like him.

"What do you want for breakfast?"

"You need to stop cooking for me. I can take care of myself." He said. "But, coffee would be awesome, if you're offering."

He stood up and ran a hand through his hair, he knew it would be sticking up at odd ends all over the place and he was itching to have a shower and be able to tame it back into it's usual style. But he refrained and took the three steps to the kitchen and watch Melinda move around as she unpacked the dishwasher.

"Do you want help?" He offered.

"Nope. Got it under control. Though, speaking of taking care of yourself," she faced him, and he rose an eyebrow. "What are you planning on doing while you're here?"

He shrugged. "I… everything's changed to quickly I hadn't given it any thought really. Write, I suppose."

She nodded. "So, we need to get you a job waiting tables or something?"

"Huh?"

Mel rolled her eyes. "I really do like you Kurt, and I'm more than happy for you to be living here, but I can't afford to pay for food and electricity for two people. You could work nights and have time during the day to write."

"Oh. Yeah, that… that sounds good actually." It didn't really, but Mel was right, he couldn't just take advantage of her like that. He'd never waited tables, or had any of those 'cliché' casual jobs. He'd never been able to stand the thought of it, not really. But if he wanted this, a real fresh start, he needed to learn to stand on his own two feet, he supposed.

"Awesome. But definitely shopping first right?"

He smiled. "That definitely comes first."

**X X X**

Several hours later, Kurt had gotten rid of his bed hair and was strolling arm in arm with Mel through a home ware store searching for the cheapest possible mattress they could find. It had taken them a while to get there since several stores along the way had attracted the both of them. Kurt had already convinced Mel to buy a cute little black dress and had promised they would go accessory hunting later in the afternoon.

His phone started going off. "Sorry, I have to take this."

Mel waved her hand. "Don't apologize." she said.

He took out his phone and answered quickly, not bothering to look at the caller ID.

"Hello?"

"Kurt?" the voice on the other end sounded surprised and Kurt could have groaned. Caller ID existed for a reason, and this was it.

"Karl," he winced, he'd carefully avoided any calls from Karl while he'd been in New York. "Hi."

"Hi. Um, where the hell are you?"

"Why?"

"Cause you haven't been at your apartment for like, a week now, and you haven't answered my calls and now some strange girl is here saying you asked her to send you your stuff."

"Oh." Kurt said. "I told her it didn't have to be done right away."

"But, why does she need to send it at all?"

"Um... look, I was going to tell you..." Kurt said. "But uh, I don't know if I'll be coming back to LA."

There was silence on the other end.

"Karl?"

"What. The. Hell? Seriously, what is wrong with you?"

"I don't know what you mean."

"You just... what?" Karl's voice got a little fainter as he obviously spoke to someone in the room with him. "No, don't pack any of it. Kurt's not going anywhere... who is Blaine? No, I've never heard of a Blaine in my life. I'm pretty sure. Kurt," his voice came back clear in the receiver. "Are you cheating on me?"

From where he was, Kurt was sorely tempted to say yes. But refrained. "We're not in a relationship. How could I be cheating on you?"

"We're not... what? What do you call the past two years then? Who the fuck is this Blaine guy and where do I find him, because I need to straighten him out. You are mine. He needs to know that."

It was taking every bit of strength he had to remain as calm as he could. But really, he was seething in anger. The possession in Karl's voice scared him more than he'd admit to anyone. "He doesn't need to know anything. And I hate to say it Karl, but you have a weird perception on what a relationship is if you think we've been in one. Just let Brittany pack what I asked her to ok?"

"Not until you tell me where you are."

"I'm in New York city."

"New... what is wrong with you, what does New York have to offer you? Have you gone insane? Just come back to LA."

"Just come _out _and maybe I'll consider it."

"Oh, you're going to play this game are you? Fine. I'll let this girl send your stuff over, I'll even help her. But you'll be back soon enough. You can't afford New York City and I doubt your fancy new boyfriend is going to treat you like I do."

"At least we agree on something." He didn't even bother to hide the sarcasm in his voice. "Tell Brittany I said hi." He hung up abruptly.

He didn't realize he was shaking until Mel put a hand on his shoulder.

"Are you alright?"

"Fine," he said. "I'm… well, I will be. Really."

"Alright, lets go get this resume done. You'll be bustling tables in no time."

"I can't wait for my life ambition to come true." Kurt said dryly, but shot a smile towards Mel who grinned back.

* * *

**A/N: Eh... I'm not overly impressed with this chapter. But, next chapter will be fun and stuff will actually happen. Ie, **_**LA. Karl. Fake-relationshipping**_**. It'll be entertaining and dramatic and I'm itching to write it. However, sometimes, Uni comes first :( So, next chapter could be a bit of a wait due to a crazy busy week with assignments and that. **

**Oh! And, I made banners! Kind of, they're not very good, but in my profile is one with Blaine, Kurt, Tyler and Mel, one with Blaine and Kurt and I made Tyler's EP cover/backcover. So… go check them out, on my profile. Or not. Up to you really. **


	12. Chapter Eleven

**A/N: This hiatus is killing me. And the new promo? Gah! I **_**need**_** to see that scene. Hurrrry up!**

* * *

Blaine hated planes. Hated them.

It wasn't a fear of flying (though he had watched probably too many late at night plane crash documentaries to be completely comfortable with the idea that the plane would definitely stay in the air). It was just the plane itself. It was small, and somehow managed to be unsettlingly quiet, yet so noisy her couldn't hear himself think at the same time and he didn't know how that was possible. The air was stuffy, it was always just a fraction too cold, the plastered on smiled of the flight attendants too fake, the food too stale, and the seats just too uncomfortable.

He hated planes.

He tried reading, but couldn't focus on the words, they blurred into each other and he'd turn the page only to realise he hadn't taken in a bit of what had just happened. He stared blankly out the window, not that he could see much. It was cloudy. Every now and then there'd be a glimpse of green. But mostly it was the pale grey of the clouds staring miserably back at him.

Kurt moved in the seat next to him and Blaine glanced over. His heart skipped a beat at the sight. Kurt had thought to bring his iPod with him and whatever he was listening to seemed to have lulled him off to sleep. His head was on an angle (dangerously close to falling on Blaine's shoulder) and his mouth was open ever so slightly.

He looked so peaceful, so... adorable.

Had it only been a week ago he'd been so close to having him only to freak out and push him away?

It felt like much longer.

They were on their way to LA. Kurt had had a friend of his, Brittany (and while Blaine had known Brittany during the year he spent at McKinley, he hadn't kept in contact with her. He hadn't kept in contact with any of the New Direction guys) send over clothes, but hadn't trusted her to pack anything else properly (and even with the clothes he got her to send over what mattered least to him, he didn't trust the postal service with anything too valuable). The plan was Mel would go with him, because he didn't want to go alone. But at the last minute she had been asked to write about an event for work, and therefore had to go to said event because she needed to payslip. And so, Blaine found himself on the plane.

There was a sudden weight on his shoulder and he sucked in a breath before slowly looking. Sure enough, Kurt was now using his shoulder as a pillow.

It was taking every bit of strength Blaine had to not wrap his arm around the man and pull him closer to him. It was taking an equal amount of strength to not push him away.

He hated planes.

**X X X**

"Excuse me, sir."

Someone was tapping Kurt's shoulder. He blinked several times.

"We're getting ready for landing, could you wake up your boyfriend?"

"What? Oh, ok." Kurt quickly became aware of his surroundings. He was on a plane, he was leaning against some... one, his arm was slung across their body and they had their head resting against the top of his and their arm on top of his. Crap. Crap. Crap. He quickly pulled himself away. The jerky movement woke Blaine.

"Huh? What?"

"We're landing soon." Kurt said, he pulled out a mirror from his bag and started checking his hair. It was ruffled, and not in the hot _'I just had awesome sex'_ way, but the _'I've been sitting on a plane for three hours'_way, which was not acceptable by any standard. He heard a laugh from beside him and blushed. "Shut up."

"Your hair is fine." Blaine said.

"Says the man who doesn't seem to know what de-frizzer is. Honestly." he reached over and tugged at one of Blaine's loose curls.

"Hey," Blaine slapped his hand away. "I know what it is just fine. I just don't use it anymore."

"Yeah," Kurt laughed. "I think you used more than a lifetime's worth of product while you were in high school."

"Thank you for pulling me out of that phase."

"Your curls are hot. You need to own them."

To hide his steadily growing blush, Blaine teased Kurt. "Aw, you think I'm hot?"

Kurt went bright red. "Shut it."

"I think you're hot too." Blaine leant forward and whispered his Kurt's ear, not quite sure what was possessing him to do so. Kurt shuddered and quickly pulled away from Blaine.

"Make sure all electronic devices are turned off." he said.

"Uh, yeah." Blaine shifted in his seat to be as far away from Kurt as he possibly could. He didn't know what had come over him.

**X X X**

Melinda grinned at the satisfying hiss of the can of coke she'd stolen from Blaine's fridge as she settled back in the couch, propping her feet up on the coffee table and settled in front of the Supernatural marathon that was playing.

She was a genius.

Kurt had been living with her for a week now and they got along famously. Honestly, Mel had never met someone that could so evenly match her in snarkiness (then again, she was severely off game, all this stuff with Blaine had made her soft) and attitude. He was an excellent housemate. He did the washing without being asked, he cleaned and tidied things out of habit. And they got along, which was rare for her.

However, Kurt refused to talk about Blaine. He was excellent at changing the topic, the conversation would move on before she even realised what was happening. Likewise, Blaine refused to talk about Kurt. Only he was more direct about it. He would bluntly say 'I don't want to talk about Kurt.' and leave it at that.

She'd been going to fly to LA with Kurt to get more of his things (though how it would fit in her tiny apartment was beyond her), because he'd begged and pleaded (well, it more with his eyes than his words) to not have to go alone. So she'd caved. Because Kurt did the whole 'kicked puppy' look so well, it was adorable and he could probably get anything he ever wanted off anyone with just that look.

And then she'd come up with a genius plan.

At the last minute she'd pulled out. Fabricating a story about a 'work event' (well, the event existed, and she had been asked to go, but used her impromptu trip to LA to get out of it, she weaved a complicated web) so... Blaine was forced to go.

Right now, Kurt and Blaine were on a plane, next to each other... maybe even talking. Or maybe not... maybe they'd just be all cute and staring into each others eyes and holding hands and all that shit that she helplessly found adorable. Or, alternatively they'd just be awkward and silent (which unfortunately was the most realistic scenario).

Either way, she was a genius.

Two episodes later (and she really needed to get laid or something because Jensen Ackles was looking so good it nearly hurt) there was a knock on the door. She groaned, and decided to leave it.

They knocked again. Apparently they weren't going anywhere.

She ran fingers through her hair several times to try and fix it... but whatever. Who would be visiting Blaine on a Saturday afternoon?

"What?"

When she swung the door open she was surprised to find a dishevelled looking Tyler Blake. The hood of his jacket hid unruly, messy hair and there were dark circles under his eyes. He looked awful.

"You look like shit." Mel saw no point in not pointing it out to him. She already wasn't a fan of this guy. "Why are you here?"

"Is Blaine here?" he asked. He pushed the hoodie down and ran his fingers through his hair, messing it up even more.

She shook her head.

"When we will be back?"

"Tomorrow night. He had to fly out to LA."

"Oh," the blonde boy looked lost for words. "Why?"

"Uh, not sure." she lied. "Are you alright?" She had to admit, the person standing in front of her was a stark difference to the person she'd met a week ago. That Tyler had been cool and composed, confident to the point of being arrogant. This Tyler looked unsure, nervous and… a little broken.

Only two months ago she would have been the sort of person to simply say. 'Blaine's not here. So, bye.' And shut the door in his face. Now she was… softer… and, kinder. And she couldn't help but ask that question.

He shook his head.

"Wanna come in?"

He nodded. She suppressed a groan as she realised, that was not a question to be asked out of politeness because she now she was stuck with he guy and had no idea what to do. Tyler hadn't made the greatest of first impressions on her and after Blaine's date with him had gone terribly she'd hoped she'd never have to see him again.

"Uh, do you want a drink?"

"What's the strongest you've got?" he asked

She raised an eyebrow. "Coke. The Cola kind, just to clarify." (Blaine had finally decided a 'no alcohol in the apartment ever' was a good policy to have)

He shrugged. "Yeah, sure."

She tossed the can to him and he caught it with one hand, she kept her face neutral, hiding the fact she was mildly impressed.

Mel went and sat down on the couch, and Tyler followed her lead. She watched Jensen Ackles kill something (and look oh so hot while he did) then sighed, she couldn't believe she was about to do this.

"So, why are you here?"

He shrugged. "I wanted to talk to Blaine."

"Blaine's not here and I'm all you've got. Why'd you wanna talk to him?"

He was silent for a while. "She's getting married."

"Who?"

"Kayla. We've been broken up two weeks and she's engaged."

"Oh." Mel said. "Uh... well, bright is, that's not going to last."

Tyler slumped forward, burying his head in his hands. "Yes it is. She got back together with the guy she was with before me, her high school sweetheart or something. I think she was always in love with him. Just like, apparently, Blaine was always in love with Kurt. And what does that leave me with? Nothing. Fucking nothing. No one."

Mel bit her lip. "I know how that feels." She said.

"Yeah, right. Someone as beautiful as you?"

"The first guy I ever loved was just using me. He didn't care about me at all. But I was stupid and young and kept going back to him even though he... he hit me and pressured me into stuff and... you know, that kind of crap people shouldn't go through but they do." She had no idea what she was doing, why she was telling him this stuff? She hadn't even told Blaine about it (she'd tried, several times, but always ended up backing out, always too afraid of what he would say) and here she was telling Tyler Blake of all people. "And it's like… I'm kind of damaged goods you know? Who would truly want me?"

"I'm sorry." Tyler said, he reached out put a hand on her knee, in a comforting way. "Really I am."

"It gets better." She let out a short laugh. "The second guy I ever loved, the only person I've ever truly been able to let in, turned out to be gay. Very gay."

"Wait..."

She nodded. "God, I have no idea why I'm telling you any of this. Don't tell him. Please."

"You're in love with Blaine?" He sounded surprised.

"Was. I _was_in love with Blaine. I mean, I suppose part of me still is but... I see how happy he could be with Kurt, if they ever get over their issues, and there's no way I'm getting in the way of that."

"Guess we're in the same position then." Tyler said

"No." She shook her head. "We're not. I always knew I never had a real shot with Blaine. You however... you probably did."

"If it hadn't been for Kurt." he said.

She nodded. "If it hadn't been for Kurt."

"Do you think they'll make it work for them?"

"For their sake, I really hope so. I mean, the tension between them is like… something I thought only existed in movies. Not real life." She shook her head. "It's borderline ridiculous, actually." She muttered the last part more to herself.

"You know what I'm suddenly thinking?"

"No. I'm not a mind reader."

"Damn, that would have been sweet. But really, I'm thinking... it's Saturday, the night is still quite young. We've both established we're equally pathetic, we should go out."

"Go out where and do what?"

He shrugged. "I don't know, but we're in New York City. The possibilities are endless. What do you say?"

She bit her lip. "I say... and really, I can't believe this, we need to dress up more before we go anywhere."

"I live on the other side of the city."

"The jeans are fine. And I'm sure Blaine has something that would fit you."

"Blaine who has no idea about clothes Blaine? I mean, I honestly didn't think I'd ever meet anyone who dressed so poorly."

"It's not that bad. And I'm sure most of what you've seen has bee the stuff he wears to work. He has more than that. Come on."

She stood up and grabbed his hand pulling him up as well and lead him to Blaine's bedroom.

"Oh this could be so suggestive right now. I love a woman that takes control."

She turned back and winked at him. "I'll keep that in mind."

As she searched through Blaine's wardrobe she couldn't help but think about how weird the situation was. Her she was, with Tyler Blake, the guy who had a record of being a bit of (or, a lot of) a jerk and she was actually going to go out with him. Most probably to a club. It felt like forever since she'd really been out anywhere, though really it was only about a month. She loved the clubbing scene. There was just something about dancing, all hot and sweaty with a stranger, having the music pulse through that she just loved. It was addicting and it had been far too long since she'd gone out.

She finally found a plain white shirt of Blaine's that he never worse because it was too big. She tossed it to Tyler. "Here, he won't even notice it missing." She said.

"It looks very... school boyish."

"Leave the top few buttons undone, and keep it untucked. It could be kind of hot."

"True, I can pull off most looks."

"You really need to learn to be less arrogant."

**X X X**

"Well, this is it."

"Home sweet home?"

"Not anymore."

Blaine stepped into the apartment. It was bigger than he'd expected. And very tidy. Everything was shades of grey and white, clean cut and polished with that sleek modern feel. Currently, the room was lit up in an orange glow with the setting afternoon sun. It didn't feel much like the place Kurt Hummel would live. Blaine knew Kurt. Blaine knew Kurt couldn't resist some colour, some variation. Sure, sleek and modern was his thing, but not to the point of it being this impersonalised and 'model home' esque. Everything was dull and muted.

The incident on the plane had gone unmentioned by both of them. It was an unspoken agreement between them to not bring it up. The drive from the airport had been one very long hour of silence (with the original Broadway cast recording of Wicked filling the dead air).

"It's... clean." He said finally.

"I'm a tidy person."

It went silent and neither knew what to say.

"Are you hungry? We should get food." Kurt said.

Blaine nodded. "Yeah that would be good."

"There's a nice restaurant a few blocks over. We can walk there, if you'd like. I'm kind of sick of sitting down."

"Yeah, alright."

It was close than a couple of block, and several of the staff seemed to know Kurt and said hello to him as they walked past to their table. Blaine wasn't sure, but he could have sworn the waiter that lead them to their table had at one point whispered to Kurt.

"This new guy's cute. So glad you got rid of Karl."

And Kurt had gone a bright shade of red.

Being out together was… different.

It was slightly uncomfortable, and awkward. But they managed to keep the conversation flowing well enough, keeping to very safe, very mutual topics.

As Blaine paid the bill (after being extremely persistent about it) he couldn't help the ache in his chest, because _missed_ this. He missed it so much. The idea of being able to buy Kurt dinner and it not being strange, the idea of just being out with him, talking about everything and nothing. Just being able to look at Kurt and know that he was his. He missed it so much it was actually hurting.

His credit card was handed back and he glanced over to Kurt who was waiting by the door of the restaurant.

Who cared about the past anymore? Their relationship had ended six years ago over stupid miscommunication. They had been young and the pressure of a long distance relationship had become too much.

He walked over to Kurt and smiled, when Kurt gave him a smile back, Blaine was positively grinning. He resolved then and there that he was going to prove to both of them that it could work between them. It would take small baby steps. But they'd worked together once before, who said they couldn't again?

**X X X**

They stared at the bed.

"Oh," Kurt said. "I didn't think this through."

"Think what through?"

"Where we're going to sleep."

"I'll take the couch."

Kurt shook his head. "No. The couch is leather and hard and really uncomfortable. I'd take the floor but... It'll mess up my sleep and that's... what would you say to sharing the bed?"

"I don't think..." Sharing a bed wasn't taking it slowly. Sharing a bed wasn't small steps. It was more… one giant leap and Blaine didn't trust his subconscious enough.

"It's a king size, and we could out pillows down the middle. There'll be plenty of room. We won't be... sleeping on top of each other or anything."

Blaine had to quickly push away the image of Kurt cuddled up against him, using him essentially as a pillow, the two of them wrapped around each other.

"Uh… ok." He couldn't believe he agreed. "It's only one night anyway."

How much damage could it do?

* * *

**A/N: When there's opportunity for two people who clearly really like each other but won't do anything about it to share a bed… yeah, I'm going to take it. That is all. **

**I didn't make good on most of the promises of last A/N but that is because they've been bumped to chapter 12 :). Blame Mel and Tyler and their scene that wasn't supposed to happen, but did for that one (well, it was going to happen, just not in this chapter, but there you go). **

**Oh also, the Alpha Male thing? Torn. Completely torn to the point of I stopped voting. Jensen and Blaine against each other? **_**This fangirl hates it. Haaaatteesss it.**_** I mean, my two biggest celebrity crushes _ever_ and you want me to chose? **

**No. Not doing it. **


	13. Chapter Twelve

**A/N: Sorry it's taken so long. This chapter was just… incredibly difficult to write. Not to mention the amount of work I've had to do lately. In fact, I'd honestly love to sit on this chapter for a little longer and try and make it better, but it's too distracting and I'm quite literally risking failing Uni because of it (#…). It's also a little shorter, but uh... I hope some of the content makes up for it. **

**Thank you everyone for the lovely reviews, and thank you for sticking around with me on this. I'm excited for some of the stuff coming up. **

**Also, this fic is honestly the longest thing I've ever written. I'm kind of proud of that. There's a lot I'd like to go back and change (mostly tone, I'd like to go back over the entire thing and make it more consistent and probably will some day), but overall, I'm pretty happy with it.**

* * *

To Blaine, it felt like it took him hours to get to sleep. He was far too aware of Kurt, lying next to him, his breathing heavy and steady as he'd drifted off as soon as his head hit the pillow. Blaine hadn't been able to. He shifted from one side to the other trying to find a comfortable position. Nothing worked. He rolled back over onto his back and let out a sigh. As he did a hand gripped his shoulder.

"For the love of God, Blaine if you don't stop tossing and turning I will kick you to the floor." Kurt's voice was soft, and slightly muffled as his head was buried in his pillow.

"Sorry." He muttered, thankful that it was dark, and Kurt was half asleep, because he knew he was bright red. Kurt let go of him and Blaine squeezed his eyes shut.

Eventually he found a comfortable position, curled up on his side, buried under the heavy blankets and he eventually drifted off into a light sleep.

At some point during the night he woke up to find he had his arms around someone, he was pulling them against him and they had an arm around his waist, using his chest as a pillow. He was startled and was going to move, but in the dim light he saw how peaceful Kurt looked and decided he couldn't risk waking him.

It must have been early hours of the morning, because he was vaguely aware that the room was lighter with the first glimpses on sunlight streaming through the cracks in the blinds, when the figure wrapped around him started to pull away. His instinct was to pull them closer. There was a sigh and they firmly pried his arms away from them. The cold hit him quickly and he let out a whimper, but buried himself into the blankets and promptly fell back asleep, forgetting it immediately.

**x x x**

"You don't own me! I don't have to clear a thing with you!"

Blaine groaned and willed the shouting away. He wanted to sleep and the loud voices from the next room weren't letting him. It got louder.

"That's bullshit Kurt! You can't jut move to the other side of the country and not tell your boyfriend."

"You aren't my boyfriend! You never have been and you never will be!"

Blaine slowly opened his eyes, suddenly remembering exactly where he was and why. He was sprawled out in the middle of the bed, Kurt was no where to be seen. Because his voice was one of the ones just outside the door, screaming loudly at someone else.

"But I care about you."

There was a short bitter laugh. "No you don't. You care about your fame, you care about your money, you care about how many girls you can be seen with in a week. You don't care about me."

Blaine sat up and moved to the door. He hated himself for eavesdropping so much, but he couldn't help himself. Besides, with their screaming match, everyone in the building could probably hear them.

"How can you say that?" The other person sounded offended.

"Because I know what it's like to have someone care about me and it's not how you treat me. I'm just your toy on the side. You're happy as long as I'll be there to give you want you want and I've lied to myself about being content with that for far too long."

"Whatever. You'll be back."

"No I won't." There was finality in Kurt's voice. "There's someone else."

Blaine wondered if it was wrong that his heart skipped a beat at that. He didn't know that much about Kurt's life, not really. There was still the possibility that Kurt was talking about someone else. It was wrong for his heart to be getting ahead of him, being all skippy and jumpy like it was. There was a long pause in the conversation.

"What?"

"You heard me. As a matter of fact he's here. We even slept together last night."

... Blaine supposed it wasn't _technically _a lie.

And maybe… Kurt had been talking about him? His heart was hammering.

"Is this... that Blaine guy that ditsy girl kept going on about?"

Blaine decided that was his cue. He opened the door, Kurt was facing away from him, so didn't see him coming. He couldn't believe what he was about to do, and later (once Karl left and Kurt bitch slapped him) he would probably regret it and wonder what the hell he was thinking. He ignored the other man in the room as he walked up to Kurt and wrapped his arms around his waist, spinning him around to face him. He placed a lingering kiss on Kurt mouth, ignoring (to the best of his ability) the tremors it sent through his body. He had been going to go for the cheek, but at the last minute, with the look of surprise Kurt was giving him, his mouth open ever so slightly, Blaine hadn't been able to help himself.

"Morning babe." His voice came out huskier, and more sleep coated than he'd intended it to.

Kurt stared at him in shock, a question mark written all over his face. Desperately Blaine tried to communicate without words what he was doing. It must have worked, because suddenly a small, but hesitant smile crossed Kurt's face.

"Morning."

"Who the hell are you?"

Somehow, Blaine tore his eyes away from Kurt to look at the man standing across the room.

**x x x **

Mel winced, then groaned as she slowly became aware of her surroundings. There was… noise… coming from somewhere. Her head hurt, and her body ached and she couldn't work out where she was.

"No…" She brought the pillow down over her face. "No. No. No."

She thought she'd moved on from that part of her life… waking up with killer hangovers, in strange places with no recollection as to how she got there or why.

Slowly, she forced herself to sit up. The room was fairly bland and generic. Cream walls, pale blue carpet, there wasn't much else in the room apart from the bed she was in, bedside tables and a wardrobe.

She then noticed she still had her dress on. Which was a start… but not a guarantee she hadn't done anything completely stupid.

The noise, she realised then after the initial shock of her headache passed and it just became a dull throb, was music. Someone was playing the guitar. They kept stopping and starting, playing different things. It was annoying.

She forced herself out of bed (the clock radio on the bedside table telling her it was eleven) and quickly tied her hair up to try and hide the mess it had become overnight. She wiped at the area under eyes, hoping that it might get rid of at least a little of the makeup inevitably there and she wouldn't look like such a wreck.

Hesitantly she opened the door of the room and walked down the short hallway until she reached an open area of a living room. The figure playing the guitar was facing away from her on the couch, hunched over with a notebook in front of them. Once she spotted the blonde hair it all (or, bits of it all) came back.

Tyler.

Shit.

This was not good.

"Uh, morning." She said softly.

He stopped mid strum and turned around. His face lit up in a smile as soon as he saw her.

"Hey."

She didn't know what else to say, so she stood there awkwardly.

"Oh, um, there's coffee in the kitchen. I can get it for you if you want."

"That would be awesome."

As he got up she moved to the couch and sat down. She could help but take a peek at the notebook he was writing in. There were a number of chords written down that meant very little to her since she had no musical inkling whatsoever, the random letters and symbols looked like gibberish to her. But below the chords were scribbled random lyrics. Tyler's writing was messy, but she could make out.

'_I could dance with you forever. Let's forget them, the world, and just be you and I together.'_

"Snooping much?"

She looked away from the notebook in shock as Tyler set down a mug of coffee, and two aspirin tablets on the table in front of her. She knew she was blushing.

"You just left it there in plain sight, that's hardly snooping."

He chuckled and closed the notebook.

"How are you feeling?"

"Awful." She admitted. She bit her lip, then looked at him. "I um… I didn't do anything too… you know?"

"No. Well, you get a little… touchy feely when you're drunk, apparently."

"Sorry. And thank you for… for not, well, you know. Taking advantage or anything."

Tyler shook his head. "I wish I could say I was noble and stopped it. But truthfully… you passed out. Otherwise, well, who knows? I'm sorry."

"Oh." She grabbed the coffee and took a sip. "God, I swore I'd given this up."

"What?"

"This." She waved her hand abstractly. "The drinking, the hangovers, the waking up in strange places. I swore I was done with it."

"At least I'm not a random, right?"

"I haven't decided if that's a positive or not yet." She muttered taking another sip.

He shrugged and picked up his guitar again, placing it on his lap and gently strummed it. "It was actually a lot of fun. I needed it."

She didn't know what to say to that so she sipped at her coffee, trying to will away her headache without taking the aspirin.

"So, what's the song about?" She asked.

"Nothing." He said quickly.

"Come on. I wanna hear it."

"No. You saw those lyrics didn't you? They were awful. I just wanted to get the idea out while I still had it there."

"Is it for your album thing?"

"My EP you mean? No. The track list for that is finally finalised. It's not long til it's out now."

"Can I get a preview?" She asked with a smile.

Tyler grinned right back. "Maybe... if you're nice."

**x x x **

Blaine was vaguely aware of Karl Sheppard. He was on a mildly successful television show about rich Werewolf teenagers or something. He was one of those 'teen hearthrob' types. Plastered all over magazines, seemed to be doing a talkshow interview every other day. And yeah, he was hot. Standing in Kurt's apartment on a Sunday morning wearing dark navy jeans and a really tight, black shirt. His black hair fell across his face, his piercing blue eyes, lined with black eyeliner, peaked out from underneath in a glare at Blaine. So, Blaine had no problems understanding _why_ he was everywhere. He just didn't personally follow his career.

He plastered on his most charming of smiles, with every fibre of his being it was forced. He couldn't bring himself to forget what Kurt had told him. He couldn't forget that it was because of this man that Kurt had called him, in tears, because he was nothing more than a giant ass.

"Blaine Anderson. And you are?"

He was sure he saw Karl's eye twitch slightly, and couldn't help but smirk.

"Karl Sheppard." He gritted out. "Kurt's boyfriend."

"Really?" Blaine tightened his arm around Kurt, bringing him closer to him. Kurt was stiff, his eyes darting between the two, obviously not sure what to make of the situation. "Because I was under the impression that was my role." He gave Karl a look as if to say 'aren't I the one who has his arm around him right now?'

"He's playing you."

This time, Blaine tightening his arm around Kurt was to comfort him. He rubbed his waist gently, because he could feel him beginning to tremble and he wanted him to know it was going to be ok. Karl couldn't hurt him, not anymore. Blaine then removed his arm from Kurt and stepped ever so slightly in front of him, facing Karl head on.

"Kurt's told me about you." He said, his voice low. He felt, more so than saw, Kurt take several steps backwards. "And to be frank, I think you're a dick."

"You don't know what you're talking about."

"Maybe I don't. But _you_ are the reason Kurt called me, after years of us not speaking, in tears, and that in my book makes you the bad guy. You don't even know how much of an ass you'd had to have been for Kurt to call _me_ of all people."

"I'm so wounded by your words." Karl mocked, with a snarl. "You don't know anything about me and Kurt. So maybe you should just shut up. He'll be back in my arms soon enough."

"Unless you're planning on moving to New York and actually becoming a nice guy, I don't see that happening."

"I love him."

"But not enough to tell the world that you're gay?"

Karl's hands curled into fists at his sides. "That is _none_ of your business."

"No actually, it is, because Kurt is my business. You can't love him that much if you aren't willing to just admit it. Because, here's a newsflash for you… it's not that much of a secret. You coming out would be about as much of a shock as Ricky Martin was."

"Blaine." There was a hand on his shoulder as Kurt spoke softly. "Just let it go."

"Kurt… I…"

"No. Just stop it." He moved to stand in between the two men. "Both of you. You're acting like teenagers. Karl," He faced him. "You should just leave. I don't know how many different ways I have to tell you that we're done for you understand it… but we are. I don't want anything to do with you anymore. Just remember _what_ I know about you, and if you push me… there's no knowing what I'd do with that information. I've kept someone's sexuality a secret before, but they were a very confused teenager who was just too afraid to face who they really were. You're not that, and I don't think I'd feel guilty if I let it slip. But I'd rather not do that. So consider this blackmail if you will. Leave this apartment. Leave me, and leave Blaine alone and find some other sorry bastard to string along because I'm not being that for you anymore."

Blaine could have applauded Kurt.

"I'm not lying when I say I love you."

Kurt nodded. "I know. But one day you'll realise you didn't actually love me. Because when you love someone…" He gaze turned to Blaine. "There's nothing you wouldn't do for them. You'd… you'd leave everything you've become familiar with to move to the other side of the country for them." He looked down at the floor. "You know… hypothetically… that's just an example of something you could do. Not that I… I mean…"

Blaine swallowed thickly, and looked anywhere in the room but at Kurt.

"Yeah, ok, whatever." Karl folded his arms across his chest. "Don't come crawling back to me when you need someone to put the pieces of your pathetic, broken life back together."

Kurt didn't comment that that was what he was _already_ doing with Blaine. He just watched and Karl turned on his heel and slammed the door shut behind him. The silence rung out in the room, settling heavily on them.

"Well," Kurt said finally, forcing a smile. "That was an eventful morning."


	14. Chapter Thirteen

**A/N: I'm so incredibly sorry for the long _long _wait between updates. On the bright side, wasn't the Prom episode all kinds of awesome? I flailed like the fangirl I am. During the whole thing. Yep.**

**This chapter was fun, it's quite light hearted… which was a nice break from everything else going on in this fic, lol. Thank you _so much_ for the response last chapter. It was really awesome :) I love you all. **

* * *

"You didn't have to stand up to him for me." Kurt said quietly.

Blaine nodded and shrugged.

"I know. I wanted to."

Kurt didn't have a response to that, his head was still reeling a little at what had just happened. He'd dreamed of it, yes, but had never had the guts to until now. He sort of hated that it took Blaine around for him to have a little courage.

That word was going to haunt him forever wasn't it?

"Breakfast." Kurt said, his mouth working faster than his brain. "Um, I haven't eaten and you got up after me so..."

"Oh, yeah," Blaine said, suddenly aware of the fact that he was starving. "Do you have food?"

Kurt shrugged. "I put some bread in the freezer before I went to New York so it wouldn't go stale. Is toast alright? Or else we could… go to the supermarket."

"Toast is fine." Blaine said with a smile.

It was awkward. Really awkward. The admissions made and, motives behind actions went unmentioned, but they still hung uncomfortably in the air. There was something strangely domestic about the way in which Kurt made them both peanut butter toast and they ate it in silence at the kitchen bench. Neither brought up how weird it was. Neither was game enough to. They didn't know where this was going… whatever _this_was.

Then they started packing Kurt's things.

"You sure you don't just want to write an instruction manual for me?" Blaine teased as Kurt grabbed another coat off him to fold properly (he didn't want to fold them at all, but they had to fit into the boxes so he'd resigned to the fact he'd have to, the _really_expensive stuff wouldn't be though)

Kurt glared. "This coat is six hundred dollars, you cannot just roll it up in a ball and shove it in a suitcase."

"Kurt, they're just clothes, pieces of material sewn together, it's not that important."

His eyes were wide. "What happened to you Blaine Anderson? Your seventeen year old self is hanging his head in shame at you right now."

"How about I just fold shirts?" Blaine said. "That's easier isn't it?' he opened a draw he thought he'd seen Kurt get a few shirts out of before.

"Blaine, don't-

It was too late. Blaine stared with wide eyes at the condoms sitting of top of a pile of plain shirts. He tried to laugh it off while desperately pushing the images that sprung to mind away.

"Oh. No offence, but that's a weird place to keep them isn't it?"

Kurt grabbed them, glaring at Blaine, "Shut up," and threw them in the bin.

"Aw, come on now, you don't want to throw out perfectly good condoms."

"Why?" Kurt snapped, folding his arms defensively. "Are _we _going to use them?"

This time it was Blaine's turn to go red. "Right, never mind."

They fell back into a quiet rhythm packing things away, when the doorbell rang. Kurt jumped up.

"Don't touch the expensive clothes." he said.

He heard Blaine say something like "Didn't plan on it." as he rushed out of the room.

He opened the door, before he comprehend anything, he was attacked by long limbs and blonde hair.

"Kurtsie!"

He couldn't help the grin that crossed his face as he patted the girl gently on the back, before she let go of him. "Hey Britt."

She stepped back slightly and studied him for a moment, then broke out into a smile. "Blaine's back."

"What?" his eyebrows shot up.

"Your eyes are brighter." She said. "They were always like that with Blaine. Then when you guys broke up, you always looked sad, even when you smiled, but no one ever said anything in case you got upset. But now... he's back isn't he? How? Is that why you've been in New York? Are you getting married?"

Kurt went red, he'd forgotten that as clueless Brittany could seem at times, she was more observant than people gave her credit for.

"Brittany, no. Yes Blaine is back but _only _as a friend. Which means no, we are not getting married."

She frowned. "You love him though right?"

Kurt sighed. "Yeah, I do." He admitted. "But he doesn't love me. Not anymore."

"Oh. Kind of like with Santana."

Oh… yeah… Kurt, in the drama of his own life, had honestly forgotten about that. It was how he and Brittany had re-connected in LA after high school. Though, she never actually told him exactly what happened, the two had ended up breaking up and now had… some sort of strangled friendship that Kurt couldn't understand. He smiled sadly at her.

"Yeah, kind of. There's still for you two though."

"I hope so. But sometimes, I don't think..."

"Come on." Kurt grabbed her hand, lacing his fingers through hers easily. "Want to help Blaine and I pack?"

She smiled and casually rubbed her thumb along the back on his hand. "Ok. Just let me text Lord Tubbington the Third and let him know."

Kurt couldn't even be startled by her statement. He just nodded as she pulled out her phone with her free hand.

In the bedroom Blaine was sitting on his bed, a sight that shouldn't have made Kurt's heart pound the way did. He was gently stroking a faux fur coat, his face pensive as he stared at it.

"Blaine," Kurt caught his attention and was about to warn him about Brittany when suddenly he was tackled the same way Kurt had when he opened the door, however, this time Blaine fell backwards onto the bed, Brittany went down with him, so they ended up a tangle of limbs everywhere as Brittany squealed.

"Blaine! You're back!" she exclaimed.

"Hey Brittany." He voice was muffled.

"I'm so happy you're back!" She said, giving him one last tight squeeze before pulled herself away. As she did, Kurt couldn't help but laugh a little at the shocked expression on Blaine's face.

"Uh… thank you?" He said a little unsurely.

"You're welcome." She turned back to Kurt. "What are we doing?"

"Packing up the rest of my clothes to send them to New York. It has to be done by tonight, because we're flying back and God knows I can't afford to fly back out here."

"Oh… ok."

"Yeah," He tried not to take notice of the crushed expression on her face. "So… would you like to fold my scarf collection?"

She nodded.

Blaine's jaw dropped open. "You're letting someone else touch your scarfs?" he asked.

Kurt gave him an odd look. "Yes…"

"Two years of dating and I was _never_ allowed to touch one of your scarfs."

"Please." Kurt scoffed. "That's an exaggeration."

"No." Blaine shook his head. "It's not. I actually remember you taking them off, folding them up neatly before we could even think about making out."

"That happened… once, maybe twice."

"Try _every _single_ time_ you wore a scarf."

"So… should I not touch your scarfs?" Brittany piped up.

"No it's fine, just fold them like this." Kurt took one of the hanger he kept them on and demonstrated, thankful for the conversation turning away from what did and didn't happen before… making out… with Blaine. Because that was… not what he wanted to be thinking about. "Have you got it?"

"I… think so." She said and picked up and mimicked Kurt's actions.

"Perfect." He smiled at her.

They were almost done by lunchtime, when they stopped and went back to Kurt's favourite café. The conversation was deliberately kept light. Blaine, asked Brittany a lot of questions about what she was up to (and, just what was it like being one of lady Gaga's back up dancers anyway?) and he in turn answered her questions (and tried to explain that, no, he wasn't making his own CD, because, as much as he loved writing and performing his own music, he didn't want to be famous, because that sounded like a tedious job).

The entire time Kurt couldn't help but think… it was never like this with Karl. Not that they were ever actually _dating_. But… Brittany had met him, and had been very stand-offish with him, and had confessed a little while later to Kurt that she didn't like him.

At the time, Kurt hadn't cared.

Lunch ended too soon.

"I should go." Brittany said. "I actually have an audition at four."

"Oh really? What for?" Kurt asked.

She shrugged. "I think it's for a movie… or maybe a commercial?" She then gave him a serious look. "Do you have to leave LA?"

"Yeah… I do." He gave her a sad look, but couldn't help let his eyes flick briefly to Blaine.

"Oh…" She hugged him tightly. "I'm going to miss you."

"It's not like you'll never see me again. For starters, there's Finn and Rachel's wedding."

"Oh!" She exclaimed. "_That's_ who's getting married! I knew it was someone. But it's not the same. You're so far away."

Kurt squeezed her a little tighter. "It's ok boo, just remember, I'm _always_ only a phone call away."

"I thought you were moving to New York."

Kurt shook his head and sighed. "You can call me _anytime_ you need me."

"Oh. Ok… that's… that helps."

As she walked off Kurt turned back to Blaine, who had a bewildered expression on his face.

"You alright Blaine?" He asked, with a bit of a smile.

"Yeah…" Blaine shook his head a little as if to clear it. "I just forgot how Brittany could be. You know?"

"Oh… yeah…"

They started walking back slowly to Kurt's apartment, both deliberately ignoring the way their shoulders would occasionally brush against each other, and neither making a move to walk a little further apart.

"So…" Blaine started. "How many of the guys from McKinley are you still in touch with?" He asked.

Kurt shrugged. "Finn, obviously, and Rachel by default there. Brittany I ran into, literally, on the street in about my third year of college. And Cede's and I are bff's for life, you know. But she's in Chicago, so I don't get to see her as much as I'd like. Otherwise… Sam and I occasionally catch up a little and um…" He trailed off into a mumble.

"What?"

"I sometimes talk to Dave too… Karofsky." He clarified.

"Really?" Blaine didn't bother to hide is surprise.

"Yeah." Kurt shrugged. "I was visiting Dad and Carole in Lima when I… ran into him and we… we had a long chat that was, interesting."

"I can't picture you, Kurt Hummel and Karofsky being friends."

Kurt let out a short laugh. "Friends is a bit of a stretch."

"What does he do these days anyway?"

"Coaches football at McKinley. Yeah… I know. Though he… he said that New Directions are still going strong and he runs an anti-bullying program that apparently is working, more than the bully whips ever did." There was suddenly a buzzing in his pocket. Kurt pulled out his phone and read a text message from Rachel, he groaned. "Come on, we have to hurry up. Apparently, Rachel is waiting on skype for me. Please, tell me why I thought helping her plan her wedding was a good idea."

"Because you only heard the words 'plan a wedding' and forgot the Rachel part of it?" Blaine said smirking.

"I curse my weaknesses." They rounded the corner and reached Kurt's apartment block.

As they walked in Blaine collapsed onto the couch and Kurt grabbed his laptop. He sat down on the couch next to Blaine, their knees were almost touching, and balanced the computer on his lap. As soon as he logged in an incoming call from Rachel appeared.

"Hi Rachel." He said.

She waved (with her left hand he noticed the band of the ring on her finger). "Hi Kurt! It's great to see you… virtually anyway."

"Yeah… you too."

"Who's with you?" She frowned, trying to get a better a look. "Are you with a man Kurt? It better not be that Karl guy Finn was telling me about because he did not sound like good news."

Kurt suppressed a groan, he remembered specifically telling Finn to not tell anyone… and that included Rachel.

"No, it's not."

"Oh good. Well, hello silent stranger."

"Hi Rachel." Blaine said. From the angle he was he could see the screen fairly well, but Rachel couldn't quite see him, so he moved to be in the shot a little more.

Neither man was prepared for the ear-piercing shriek that followed as he did.

"Blaine?" Rachel asked. "Blaine Anderson? Kurt… what?"

Kurt rolled his eyes. "It's not important. What _is_ important is-

"I think it _is _important. When did this happen? Why, how? I have so many questions… are you two finally back together? Because I have to say… it took you long enough. You two have an epic romance, much like Finn and myself."

"Rachel." Kurt tried to cut in, but she continued on.

"… Destined to be together, but first you must overcome the many obstacles life puts in your way. I always thought Finn and I had a relationship similar to Ross and Rachel from Friends, with the ups and downs, ons and offs… but you always know that someday, it will finally happen. Of course, it's only appropriate considering she is my namesake. And you two are like… the gay version."

"Rachel…"

"… This is so good… the two of you back together and right in time for my wedding. How perfect. And Kurt! You should write your story as your screen play, you definitely have an epic movie romance there. It's the right amount of drama and romance, place the slight controversy of it being a homosexual relationship… the media would eat it up. Oh! I _have_ to play myself. Or maybe that would be too easy… maybe I should challenge myself, I'm happy to read for the part of Mercedes, or even Brittany, no actually, I think that-"

"Rachel!"

"Yes?" She stopped mid-ramble.

"We're not together."

"Oh."

Blaine knew he was red from Rachel's run on speech and shifted so he was once again out of the shot and she couldn't see him.

"So, wedding?" Kurt asked. He didn't want to get into 'why not?' and 'how are you two friends again anyway?' definitely not right then and there.

"Oh, yes." She clapped her hands as a smile spread across her face. "This is the ring." She waggled her hand in front of the camera. "I know you've seen it but… doesn't it just suit me perfectly?"

"Yes, it does." He wasn't lying, the ring was gorgeous and very… Rachel. A gold band, with stars lightly engraved into it (that was a personal touch Kurt had insisted Finn get) with one large diamond in the middle, surrounded by tiny sapphires, it looked like it just, well, belonged on her hand.

"So, the wedding is going to be in May, I'm having my dress custom made, because my dads insisted that I couldn't just get some off the rack."

"I agree with them. But you better let me look at designs before you get anything made." Kurt said. "Anything else?"

"Well, I have a couple of venue ideas and colour schemes… but it would be easier to talk in person. I know it's a lot to ask you to come out to New Jersey, but…"

"Well, actually…" Kurt bit his lip.

"What?"

"I'm actually, uh, moving to New York."

For the first time in her life, Rachel Berry was actually speechless. Her jaw dropped open in shock.

Blaine leant over, moving back into the shot.

"You all right Rachel?" he asked.

"You… you're… why? But you're in your apartment… the one in LA. I can tell from here."

"Yeah, well, Blaine and I flew back for the weekend to finish packing up my stuff. My lease ends in a couple of weeks as it is and I thought… I could use the change."

Rachel glanced at Blaine and smirked a little.

"Sure, 'the change'. Yeah. I thought you guys _weren't_ back together."

"We're not." Kurt said, knowing he was going red. "Blaine tell her."

"It's true."

"So… you'll be able to come to Jersey?"

Kurt nodded. "We'll arrange it over the next couple of weeks, yes?"

"It's a plan." She agreed. She then smiled. "So are you two… living together?"

"No." They both answered quickly.

"No," Kurt said. "I'm staying uh, with a friend of Blaine's. But as soon as I'm up on my feet I'll find my own place."

"But what about your writing?" She asked.

Kurt shrugged. "Honestly? It's going nowhere at the moment anyway. I'm hoping New York will give me new inspiration. But who knows, maybe I'll just ditch it all together and pursue Broadway."

Rachel's eyes narrowed playfully. "You are deluded if you think you're going to steal any roles from me."

Kurt laughed, and glanced at the time. "Oh, shoot. Rachel, we have to go. The flights in a couple of hours and we still have many boxes to seal. I'll talk to you during the week."

"I'm counting on it." Rachel said smiling. "Bye Kurt, bye Blaine."

"Bye." Blaine didn't move from where he was.

Kurt ended the call and turned to Blaine. "Come on, lets get this over with."


	15. Chapter Fourteen

**A/N: I can't say it enough… thank you guys **_**so much**_** for being so completely wonderful. **

**Fun fact for this story: (In case you care at all) Tyler Blake was given the name Tyler Blake because, I just generally like the name Tyler and Blake is the surname of one of my favourite Aussie comedians (any other Hamish and Andy fans out there? Haha). **

**I hope you enjoy this chapter. There is significant progress :)**

* * *

_'You still love him though right?'_

_'Yeah, I do.'_

Blaine hadn't been able to shake the overheard conversation from his mind. For the rest of the packing, the flight home, lying in his bed that night. He'd never meant to eavesdrop, but at the time he had been worried that maybe Karl was returning for round two, or something. As soon as he saw it was Brittany Pierce he knew he should have just let it be. But then he'd been curious because, well, Kurt had never mentioned still being in contact with her. Then he'd overheard _that_, and now the words just wouldn't leave him.

What did Kurt mean?

Platonically? Romantically? Did he mean it in a 'he was my first everything, so part of me will always love him,' way? Or 'I want to be with him forever and ever and ever, get married and have children and grow old together,'?

Then there was what he'd said to Karl. Kurt had practically admitted it then right? He still loved him...

It had sounded honest enough, but, the thought that maybe Kurt had only said it to get rid of Karl had lingered in the back of his mind. He hadn't brought it up. The last thing he wanted was to find out he'd completely misinterpreted it all and drive Kurt away once and for all. He'd just gotten him back. He couldn't lose him again over something stupid.

"Blaine," there was a rough hand on his shoulder and he startled. "You ok man?"

He looked up to see Tyler's blonde head peering down at him curiously.

"You've been spacey all week."

"I'm fine." he said.

He honestly didn't know what was up with Tyler. Last week the guy had been acting like a petulant child towards him. Not without reason, Blaine knew he had pretty much treated Tyler like dirt, leading him on, only at the last minute to decide that no, he didn't actually want him after all. It wasn't that he wasn't attracted to Tyler… because he was, or, he had been. The guy was hot, slightly arrogant and had a voice that made girls and guys alike swoon over him. If Kurt hadn't come back…

Kurt.

Who apparently loved him?

Ugh, what had that even meant?

... That hadn't been the point. The point was that suddenly, Monday morning rolled around and Tyler was smirking again, carrying himself confidently (overly so) giving light hearted arrogant remarks and just generally joking around. The mood swings were gone, the sullen, sulky attitude had all but disappeared and all week it had confused Blaine. But he went along with it anyway. Preferring this Tyler over sulky, writing songs about him that made him feel guilty, Tyler.

Whatever had happened while he was in LA, it was definitely a good thing, Blaine decided.

"Are you sure?" Tyler asked with a sceptical eyebrow raised.

"Yeah."

"You know you can talk to me, man." He said, looking a little more serious. "Whatever it is. I heard you were in LA for the weekend. Did... something happen?'"

"How did you know I was in LA?"

"Oh... uh," Tyler blushed a little. "I went to your apartment looking for you. Your friend was there instead and she told me where you were."

"Oh." Blaine said. "Why were you looking for me?"

"It's really not important anymore. What happened in LA?"

"Nothing." Blaine said.

"O…kay?"

Blaine sighed heavily and ran a hand through his unruly curls.

"That's the problem." he slumped down, his head landing heavily on the desk, narrowly missing the soundboard, but he probably wouldn't have even cared if he had. He had no idea why he'd just told Tyler that.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Tyler asked slowly, hesitantly.

With his head still on the desk, Blaine shook his head.

"Well, it's about time we had a break, and I really want some coffee and don't really want to go alone. So… come with me?"

Blaine sighed and sat up.

"Yeah, fine." He looked at the other musicians in the room. "We'll take a twenty minute break, okay guys?"

Blaine tried to pretend he didn't feel awkward, that it wasn't weird to be getting coffee with a guy he not only worked with, but went on a date, ditched on said date for another man, and who then later wrote a song, or two or three about him.

They got their coffee, but instead of going straight back to the studio, Tyler grabbed a table.

"So," Tyler said. "Care to tell me why you were in LA and why it's put you in such a funk since you got back?"

Blaine shook his head. "Not really." He said. "Care to tell me why you were dropping by my apartment over the weekend?"

"Point taken."

They both sipped at their coffee, looking in opposite directions around the small shop. Basically… anywhere but each other.

"The EP is coming along nicely." Blaine said finally, unable to take much more of the silence.

Tyler nodded. "I'm happy for it. I'm excited for the launch."

"Not long now."

"Two weeks and three days. I… kind of have a countdown on my fridge."

Blaine smiled. "I kind of had the same thing for the first album I ever helped produced."

"You're good at what you do, you know." Tyler said. "Really good. I uh… I like that you actually let me have a say, you know? Sometimes producers just act like they know best, they know what's going to sell and so they like to take charge."

Blaine could only shrug. "The way I see it, it's your music. I'm just there to help it reach it's potential."

"But really… I, I'm going to see if you can produce my full studio album when it comes to it."

"Oh?" Blaine was a little surprised. "Yeah, that'd be awesome."

They fell silent again.

"I was helping… uh, my friend, pack."

"What?" Tyler took a moment to realise he'd said something.

"In LA. Uh… Kurt is, he's moving here, to New York."

"Oh."

"I always found it strange that out of the two of us I was the one that ended up here. He was always Broadway bound. Right up until…" Blaine stopped.

"Until what? You guys broke up?"

Blaine shook his head. "No. Uh… he didn't get into NYU."

"Oh."

"I did, and… I couldn't not go. My dad always had Harvard, or Princeton in mind for me, but… I was drawn in by the city lights, by the, the magic of it all. Oddly enough, it was the way Kurt talked about New York City that made me want to live there so badly. I'd just always imagined it'd actually be with him. Is that stupid?"

"No." Tyler shook his head.

"But, he ended up getting accepted into UCLA, which… really wasn't bad, and more than he expected, I think. He gave up on his dreams of being a Broadway star and decided screenwriting was what he wanted to do."

Tyler nodded. Not too sure what he was supposed to say, and by the looks of it, Blaine wasn't even sure why he was telling Tyler all of this. It was like… he'd started, and the words just kept spilling out of his mouth.

"I tried to talk him out of it, only because… I know it's not his passion. I tried to convince him to actually chase after his dream, that he'd regret it otherwise but he wouldn't hear any of it. He went to LA and I came here and… our relationship wasn't the same after that."

"You had an entire country between you."

"It wasn't just that." Blaine shook his head. "I don't know, sometimes I wonder if maybe a part of him deep down resented me for getting what he wanted. I mean, not the Broadway career." He let out a short laugh. "Theatre was never my passion like it was his. But, getting the college, the city… all of that. And part of me was disappointed in him for giving up so quickly. That after… everything. I mean, he went through crap at high school. More than you'd believe, I'm sure. And after all that… he just gave up and it was like, there was this part of me that couldn't recognise him. It put this strain on us. And then, the distance wasn't helping either. There was… a lot of miscommunication, and jealousy and hurt and anger and frustration and it just kind of ended abruptly one night after a skype conversation."

"That sucks."

"It did. Honestly, I remember thinking 'we'll talk it through tomorrow, it'll be alright. Spring break is coming up, I'll go see him' I was looking up flights and everything when suddenly on facebook I saw he'd changed his status to single and." He stopped. "Wow, I am so, _so_ sorry Tyler."

"It's fine, really."

"Is it stupid to think that maybe this could be a new beginning?"

"I… I don't know. Is it?"

Blaine shrugged. "I don't know either. But it's like… _finally_ we're in the same city. We can talk without it turning into a fight. We could move past everything that's happened and… try again."

Tyler smirked and Blaine eyed him warily.

"What?"

"If I were you I'd ask him out. Point blank, on a date, with nothing left up in the air. Like… let him _know_ that it's a date. But something pressure free, where you can talk, but there are other option in case things start going downhill."

"What?"

"Don't you know this like… amazingly talented, incredibly good looking musician who's about to launch an EP, and his record label is throwing this party for it and everything?"

"I should ask Kurt to your EP launch?"

"Yeah." Tyler grinned. "It's perfect, isn't it?

"It's work."

"As if a party can really be work. Look, invite him. Make it really clear it's a date, but it's an environment where you can spend the night glued to each others side, or you can go and talk to other people if it gets too much."

"What if he's not interested in me anymore?"

Tyler raised his eyebrows. "I've met the guy… once and it was really obvious he is."

**x x x**

One of them sat on the couch, the other at small bench separating the kitchen from the living room.

Both had their laptops out typing away furiously, listening to an old Adele CD in the background.

Finally, Kurt squeezed his eyes shut, before opening them again and stretched his back. He glanced over to Mel who was on the couch, feet propped up on the coffee table with her laptop balanced on her thighs as she typed.

"How many words are you at?" He asked.

She paused in her typing. "Uh… fifteen hundred. But only two hundred for my article."

"Oh." Kurt said. "What are you writing then?"

She shrugged. "I got bored. Started writing a story about an evil empress who eventually gets taken down by a prisoner from another land or something. It's stupid. But far more entertaining than my article."

"Ok... you think maybe you should write what you're actually getting paid for?"

Mel shrugged. "Don't diss it. I named the best character, the empresses right hand man, the wardrobe designer, the advisor, and all things fabulous and flamboyant Kurt Anderson."

Kurt swallowed. "Uh... why?"

"Because he's the character everyone will root for. The one everyone mutually loves. You know like the Weasley twins... find me a person who doesn't like the Weasley twins I dare you. And, well, it seemed only right to name him after the two most awesome people I know. But, he just seemed like more of a Kurt than a Blaine, so you got first name."

"Right." Kurt's brain hadn't really gotten past the idea of Kurt Anderson. Kurt Hummel-Anderson. Blaine Anderson-Hummel. Blaine Hummel? Oh, he really needed to stop.

"Anyway." She sighed. "I should get back to my stupid article. Really, though, does anyone care about 'how to set the mood for a romantic night' and really, I'm the wrong person to be writing this."

"And why is that?"

"Uh, because the closest I've gotten to a real relationship with anyone in over a year was an extremely dysfunctional not really a relationship thing with an openly gay man."

"I thought you and Blaine weren't together."

"We weren't. Not officially anyway. I knew he would never be into me like I was into him."

Kurt froze.

Mel seemed to realize what she'd said too late and let out a short laugh. "Uh, let's just move past that shall we?"

"You liked Blaine?" he asked.

She shot him a look. "You've met the guy. I'm pretty sure he's capable of turning straight guys gay and lesbians straight. It's like... everyone is Blaine-sexual."

Kurt was silent for a moment.

"I'm over him now." she said.

"Yeah, but... wow."

"What?"

Kurt looked at her. "You really had it bad for him didn't you? No wonder I thought you two were together when I first met you."

"You did?"

"Yeah," he blushed. "I was all ready to have a go at him about it too. It was like Rachel Berry's Party Train Wreck Extravaganza all over again."

"Anyway," Mel shrugged (sliding past his comment because she was absolutely no idea what he was talking about), deciding that admitting to Kurt then that she and Blaine had hooked up a couple of times would be a bad idea. "It's all in the past now."

There was a ding from her computer and she turned her attention back to it. "Please be from work." she muttered. "Please be a new assignment and please be more interesting than... Yes!"

"What?" Kurt asked.

"It's all about discovering new music, who the up and coming artists of the next few years are."

"That sounds really cool."

"Yeah," She nodded. "And so much better than this bedroom crap. I mean really, Your Body Is A Wonderland by John Mayer and your good to go."

"Oh come on, there are far better songs than that."

"S&M, Rihanna?" She asked with a smirk.

Kurt shrugged. "If you're into that."

**X x x**

"You never told me how LA went." Mel pointed out, taking a long sip out of her beer. Blaine screwed his nose up.

"You live with Kurt." he said.

"Oh, that's who that random person using up all the hot water is?" she said monotone. "I know he lives with me. But I'm more comfortable forcing information from you."

"Right, LA was good."

"Sunny?"

"Warmer than here, yeah."

"So..."

"So..." he mimicked.

"Anything happen?"

"That Karl guy dropped by."

"Oh?" She perked up suddenly. "How did that go?"

Blaine shook his head. "Not well at all. He's a jerk."

"And that's it?"

Blaine thought about what he'd overheard, all he'd told Tyler and what he was going to do... and shrugged.

"Yeah, that's it."

"You're an idiot Blaine." she said bluntly.

"What?"

"Anyway, I was wondering what you thought about Tyler."

Blaine blinked a couple of times, his mind trying to catch up with the conversation.

"I... don't know what you mean."

"What do you, Blaine Anderson, think of him, Tyler Blake?"

"Why?"

She shrugged. "Just curious."

"No." Blaine said, shaking his head.

"What?"

"No. Absolutely not. I one hundred per cent disapprove."

"What? Blaine you can't... you can't just say no like that. You're not my father."

"You _asked _me what I thought! And Mel, really… trust me on this, it's not-"

"And even if you were it wouldn't make a difference. I never listened to what my father said anyway. I just wanted to know what you thought."

"And I think it's a bad idea. You don't know him Mel."

"I know him better than you think." she downed the last of her beer and slammed it on the coffee table and stood up.

"What? You met him for like five seconds."

"No. He came over on the weekend, we hung out, we talked, we went out. We had sex." That was a lie, but she didn't care. "And it was awesome and I really like him and I was only being polite because if I started dating him without telling you you'd be pissed. So... just shut the hell up about it and I'm going to go"

"Okay..."

"Bye." she stormed out, leaving a confused and upset Blaine behind.

**x x x**

Blaine was nervous. The last guy he'd actually asked out on a date had been, well, Kurt. And he'd been nervous then too, but he had that fact that prior to that they'd had several really, really good make out sessions and Kurt had all but confessed his feelings, to back him up.

This was nothing like that.

It was a Monday afternoon. And he was meeting Kurt for coffee.

He was late.

"Hi," Kurt slid into the seat in front of Blaine. "I'm so sorry I'm late."

Blaine shrugged. "It's fine." he said. "Here, I got your coffee."

"Oh." Kurt looked surprised for a moment, then a deep flush colluded his cheeks. "Thank you. You didn't have to."

"I thought uh... I thought it might warm you up to me a little."

Kurt frowned.

"I want to ask you something. And while I would, understand, if you said no. I'd really like it if you said yes."

"Okay... now you're worrying me."

"It's nothing to worry about, I just..." he took a deep breath. "I'll just go for it yeah? That seems like the best thing."

"Okay." Kurt said slowly, still trying to work out what Blaine was getting at.

"Not this weekend, but next, the label is having a huge party for uh, for the launch of Tyler's EP."

"Right, ok."

"The RSVP date is tomorrow so they can arrange catering and that. Which is why I'm asking you now."

"Asking me what exactly?"

"If you'll go with me." Blaine said, and after a pause clarified. "As a date. As, as _my_date."

"Oh." Kurt didn't look at him and took a long drink of his coffee. Blaine could feel his heart pounding in his chest. So hard he was sure everyone in the room could literally hear it. Kurt didn't say anything for far too long. And he was starting to panic. If the answer was no, why couldn't he just say it and put him out of his misery.

"I get it, ok. The answers no isn't it? Just, I'll just..."

"No." Kurt said.

It was then that Blaine's heart stopped altogether and sunk. That was it. Just... no.

"My question is why?"

"What?"

"Why are you asking me on a date?"

"Because," Blaine started, thinking about everything he'd told Tyler. "This is it now isn't it? To find out if we could have made it?"

Kurt's demeanour changed and he looked defeated. "So, it's about 'what if'?"

"No." Blaine said quickly. "God no. It's about... finally getting that second chance I always dreamed of having with you but never believed I'd get." he reached out and grabbed Kurt's hand. "I never got over you. Ever. Kurt, and I... I want you." He wasn't entirely convinced he was actually saying all of this right now, to Kurt. He was probably dreaming and when he woke up… he'd have to try and do it all again. "I want to take you out, as my date and no one else's. I want to pick you up and drop you home at the end of the night and... and kiss you goodnight. And... you look freaked out. Was that too much? I'm sorry. I'm just trying to be honest with you. God, I'm sorry. I'll just go."

"No, Blaine." Kurt gripped his hand tightly before Blaine cod start to pull away. "All those thing... they're things I imagined you saying to me for years. But,"

"It's too late isn't it?"

"No." Kurt shook his head.

"Please stop saying no."

"I think we need to move a little slower."

"Okay..."

"In the past... you were the person who knew me better than I knew myself. But, we're close to strangers now. I will go with you to this party but we're going to treat it like a first date. Like we don't have a long history behind us. Like we're two new people. If we're starting fresh we're doing it properly."

Blaine grinned. "So that's a yes?"

"That's a yes."


	16. Chapter Fifteen

**A/N: I'm so sorry that for the wait for this chapter it's not very long/there isn't too much content. This chapter is a little bit fillery, but is setting up a couple of things; so, bare with it please. Also, I pretty hardcore ship Hummelberry friendship****, so having a good portion of a chapter dedicated to them was kind of fun :). **

**On the bright side of things, the next chapter is pretty much drafted, it just needs some hardcore editing, but… it won't be too long before it's posted.**

**Also, the bands/artists/record labels mentioned are to my knowledge, made up by myself. If they really do exist it's an honest coincidence. The venues however, are real.**

* * *

"No." Kurt shook his head firmly. "Look, I get that you're the walking definition of insecurity, but the way to make yourself look good on your wedding day is not to made your bridesmaids looks bad."

"But that's not-

"Rachel." he raised an eyebrow at her. "These dresses are the same colour you guys wore at the 2011 regionals competition and, while that's fine for sixteen year old girls in a show choir competition to wear, it really looks flattering on no one, especially in this fabric. And _don't _get me started on the dress you've chosen; it's going to make them look five times their actual size. I can only assume you've chosen it to make them look bad, and you look good. Because surely you can see that these aren't good dresses."

"It's my wedding." She huffed folding her arms across her chest.

"Yes darling, it is." He patted her shoulder gently. "But you have yet to prove adequate taste in anything to warrant your opinion valid on choices of colour scheme, dresses, and everything in between. I really do think navy and pastel yellow is the way to go."

"What about pink and green?"

Kurt sighed and rubbed his forehead. The conversation was officially going around in circles.

"Is your wedding themed?"

"No..."

"Then no. No pink and green they clash horribly, don't take fashion advice from Broadway… with exceptions of course, but Wicked is not place to get ideas from. Look, I have a gorgeous colour swatch in mind. Why don't we take a break and go down to the fabric store and I will show you. You'll fall in love I promise."

"I'm not making any promises."

"That's all I ask." he stood up and held his hand out to her. "My lady?"

"Thank you, kind sir." she said with a giggle as she accepted his hand and stood up with him.

The drive to the shopping centre was a short one, but Kurt quickly realised something; Rachel was a terrible driver. She was jerky on the breaks, stopping was something that happened suddenly in about three seconds, leaving him with whiplash, rather than one long fluid movement, and he thought he was going to die in a horrific car crash every time they turned the corner.

So as soon they pulled into the shopping centre's car park he kept a close eye on where she put her keys, with every intention of stealing them and driving home. Because his life just happened to be going right for once, he didn't need to die in a car accident and ruin everything.

They walked arm in arm into the store.

**x x x**

_From: Christian Frier__  
__To: Melinda Valdez_

_Hi Melinda,_

_The following are events we've organized for you to attend. Show them your ID at the door._

- _An Encumbrance- Littlefield, Brooklyn, Thursday November 9, unsigned_

_- Tyler Blake- The Mercury Lounge, Houston Street, Saturday November 11, Launch of Speechless EP, for SBA Records. _

_- __Adelaide Conner- Top of The Strand, 37__th__ Street, Friday November 17, for Here and There Records_

_- __Wieland- Webster Hall, 11__th__ Street, Saturday November 18, Launch of As Night Falls LP, for Dolce Suono Music_

_Looking forward to your writing for the next issue._

_Christian._

She grinned as she read the list. Next Saturday she'd be at Tyler's EP launch. This was perfect. Between them, Blaine and Kurt had told her all about how it was going to be their first date. Date. Them. She had honestly never seen Blaine's eyes light up so much. He was genuinely happy and it in turn made her happy.

And now she was going to have a fabulous excuse to spy on them. It was brilliant luck, she almost couldn't believe it.

She closed her laptop and put it aside. She had the day to herself, Blaine would be at work, and Kurt was visiting a friend in Jersey. Apparently he was helping her plan her wedding or something.

She drummed her fingers on her leg, trying to think of something to do. There was nothing on TV, and her DVD collection left a lot to be desired. She was spared from the struggle further when her phone started ringing.

Mel quickly scrambled for it. She glanced at the name of the caller. Tyler Blake. Her heart might have skipped a beat, but she tried not to dwell on that as she answered.

"Hello." she said, making sure her smile was evident in her cheery tone.

"Hey, Mel. It's, uh, Tyler. How are you?"

"I know. And I'm great. How are you?" she was grinning like an idiot, and was ridiculously thankful no one (being, Blaine or Kurt) was around to see it.

"Oh I'm awesome. Just in the studio right now. We're finishing the last track of the EP today."

"Oh, yeah Blaine was telling me how that comes out soon." she said, biting her lip, did she tell him she would be there or not?

"Yeah, I'm stoked about it; it's turned out way better than I thought. And uh, hey, I have something to ask."

"Yes?" she dragged out the word coyly.

"The label is throwing a party for the launch of it. Well, it'll be kind of a gig as well, I'll play a couple of songs too. But uh, I was just wondering if you'd like to come. As a date. I mean, as, my date, sorry, I should clarify."

"Oh."

Mel already knew that Blaine, her best friend, Blaine, wasn't sold on the idea of her and Tyler together. She didn't know why. She also didn't know why she cared about what Blaine thought or said. She'd always made a point in her life to do whatever the hell she wanted, regardless of what anyone said. And she wanted to date Tyler. She wasn't going to lie to herself about that anymore. He was cute (well, hot actually), nice, actually laughed at her sense of humour… what wasn't there to like about him?

"Yeah, so..."

She didn't want his EP launch to be their first date. Not when she'd have to interview him for work. What sort of a first date would that be?

"I... I'm actually busy then," she said. "I have a thing for work that night."

"I didn't even tell you when it was."

Oh.

"Blaine told me," she covered quickly it wasn't a lie though. "He and Kurt are making this big thing of it."

"Oh right, yeah of course. So Blaine actually asked him then?"

"Yes, he did. You have to keep an eye on them, for me, by the way. Not in a creepy way, but make sure they spend plenty of time alone. If people try to talk to Blaine and stuff, find an excuse to pull them away."

"Yes ma'm."

"Oh haha, so funny." Mel said dryly.

"Well, I should get going."

"Wait."

"What?"

"That's it?" she asked. "One attempt at asking me out and you give up? Wow, maybe I don't want you after all."

There was a pause.

"You want me?"

"Uh," she laughed nervously, that had been a very unintentional slip. "Well… I really wouldn't mind going on a date with you, I mean. I just am genuinely busy the night of your launch."

"Oh. That's... that's uh... yeah, so what about the Friday after? My schedules pretty much booked solid until the launch party."

"Hm, maybe," was that a giggle that escaped her mouth? What was this guy doing to her? "I have to go. Lots and lots of work to do. See you later."

"Wait, so that's a yes right?"

She giggled, again, god she barely recognized herself.

"I'll talk to you later Tyler. Bye." she hung up quickly before he could get another word in, and couldn't help but wonder what the hell had just happened.

**x x x**

"Kurt," Rachel said, before they got out of the car, they had spent a good hour in the fabric store and had picked a dozen different fabric samples. He was in the driver's seat; having managed to steal the car keys from Rachel's bag and had refused to give them back. "I have an ulterior motive for inviting you here today. I mean, I do want you to help me plan, but today specifically… I had an ulterior motive."

"Oh…" Kurt wasn't too sure if that was a good thing or not.

"Finn and I have talked this over… a lot, in fact, there was a bit of arguing about it but we finally came to what we hope is a suitable solution and, if you agree to it, well, it'll make things a lot easier."

"Ok…"

"I, I want you to be my man of honour at the wedding."

Kurt paused for a moment.

"Your _what_?"

"Well, you can't be the _maid_ of honour. And, of course you were always going to be part of the wedding party. We actually argued forever about it, because, well Finn was going to ask you to be his best man."

"He was?" Kurt was genuinely surprised (and flattered).

"Yeah, of course. You're his brother. But, then I mentioned that Noah has been his best friend since they were kids, and then Finn thought about having two best men, but then thought of you being my man of honour came to me, and we both agreed it would be the best option. If you'll agree to it."

"That's a little… non-traditional, isn't it?"

"Stuff like this happens all the time."

"I'm _not_ wearing a dress."

"Of course not. You'll wear a normal suit, with a tie the same colour as the dresses."

"I'm also _not_ dancing with Puckerman."

"I already thought that through." She grinned. "I'll be having one extra bridesmaid, so you can dance with one of the girls. Just, because well, Finn's having Noah, Sam and one of his friends from college and I thought you might be uncomfortable."

He bit his lip for a moment, mulling it over. Then nodded.

"Ok."

"Ok. Really?"

"I'll be your man of honour."

"You have no idea how much this means to me."

Kurt smiled.

"This is going to be the best wedding yet."

Rachel grinned back at him, and they both got out of the car and went back inside the house. They started going over the fabrics and colours Kurt had chosen for a good while, before Rachel decided it was time for a snack break and disappeared into the kitchen. She returned a few minutes later with a platter of cheese, cold meat, and stick of vegetables (carrots, celery, cucumber) and set it down on the coffee table (Kurt very quickly cleared away all the stuff strewn there in their planning so it wouldn't get ruined).

"Ok. So, it's high time we discussed the metaphorical elephant in the room."

"What elephant?"

"You living in New York all of a sudden. Oh, and Blaine being with you in LA. Now that's a story I want to hear. I figured we could spend the morning focusing on me, and my wedding, and in the afternoon shift so you had the floor. Now tell me everything." she dipped a carrot stick into some onion dip.

"I... it's not really much of a story."

"Kurt, last time I spoke you, you were pretending to be happy living in LA with a crappy boyfriend and not really having a real job. What changed?"

Kurt didn't want to go into the story.

"I woke up one day," he said, deciding to give her the Cliff Notes version. "I suddenly realised that... I wasn't happy."

"And now?"

"I'm getting there," he gave her a small smile. "Slowly, but surely."

"And Blaine?" she pressed.

"Has been a great friend," he said. It wasn't lie, not really. Blaine had handled Kurt stumbling back into his life all of a sudden really well. And now... well... things were looking even better.

"So what was it?" Rachel asked. "A drunken phone call? A missent text? Oh, please tell me it was a chance meeting in a coffee shop, you accidentally picked up his order, and your eyes met and you embraced and-

"Rachel." Kurt interrupted. "You _need_to learn the difference between reality and Broadway. But... drunken phone call is closest."

"That's disappointing."

"I agree that a chance meeting in New York would have been extremely romantic though."

"So... are you guys... what's the deal?"

"We have a date. Next Saturday."

The noise that came from Rachel was somewhere between a shriek and a squeak. It was loud and ear piercing and Kurt didn't know whether to be annoyed at the damage done to his eardrums, or impressed at the fact that that sort of a noise could come from a human. He thought he had a high voice… but Rachel was reaching levels almost too high for the human ear to hear.

"I... I'm so excited I can't breath! Oh my god Kurt. No wonder you're practically glowing. I mean, really, I was starting to think you'd defied the laws of biology and were pregnant. But this is so much better. I'm going to hug you."

Kurt had no time to react before he was caught in a vice like grip by Rachel, his arms were pinned to his sides helplessly as she squeezed him. Then she promptly let go.

"Wait, are you sure it's a date?"

"Yes."

"Really? Because do I have to remind you of junior year when-

"No, you really don't have to remind me," seven years later and he still felt utterly embarrassed by that. "No, he made it very clear."

"Very clear, how?" She gave him a stern look.

"He said 'I want this to be a date' and didn't look like he was joking."

She squealed again and hugged him once more.

"Your life is nearly back on track." she said.

"What?" Kurt looked affronted. He hadn't realised his life was… off track… maybe he hadn't quite been living what he'd dreamed of, but…

"Now, I spoke to my agent and she's happy to meet with you whenever your available. I think a week should be sufficient time for you to prepare an audition? Wait, when was the last time you sang, your voice might be a little rusty. Well, we can make it two weeks. Singing is like riding a bike, you don't forget, but you don't want to he pitchy either."

"Uh, Rachel... what are you talking about?"

"Your Broadway career." She said, as though it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"I..." he didn't know what to say. "Rachel, I don't think..."

"Come on. We talked about this our entire senior year. It was always going to be you, me and Broadway, side by side, taking over the world together. We were suppose to work across the street from each other, and meet up for coffee daily. Then you threw a hissy fit and went to LA."

"I did _not _throw a hissy fit."

"Yes you did. You came to my house at 10pm with your rejection letter from NYU crying about how New York didn't want you and how could this happen and how could you tell Blaine and what were you going to do."

"I was upset."

"And you went to the opposite side of the country!"

"No," he shook his head. "Those two things have very little to do with each other. I went to LA because it was the best choice for the colleges I got accepted into."

"But it's ok now. We can still do it. Live our Broadway dreams, live in the same apartment building, well, no actually, cause Finn and I are living here after we decided the city wasn't a suitable environment for kids."

"Kids? Already?" Kurt was shocked. Rachel was just moments away from really breaking out as a star. She was so close, and already had a ridiculous amount of buzz around the Broadway circuit.

"Not until I'm thirty-two now. But we had the money to move out here now, in preparation for when we are ready to be parents."

"Oh,"

"So what do you say? Just one meeting, I've already raved about your vocal range and she really want to hear you sing."

"I don't have to commit to anything do I?"

"No, not at all."

"Alright," he didn't know why he was agreeing.

* * *

**A/N: Thought I'd make a quick note on the 'man of honour' thing… stuff like that does happen. Last year I had a girl-friend who was part of the grooms side of the wedding party at a wedding, so… yeah… does happen. And I kind of could see Kurt being Rachel's 'man' of honour.**


	17. Chapter Sixteen

**A/N: Eeep, it's **_**so close**_** to the end, I'm genuinely shocked I'm going to finish this fic. I hope you guys enjoy this chapter… it's about freaking time, haha. For anyone interested, I did some dodgy photoshop work and created Tyler's EP cover and it's posted on my profile.**

* * *

"I'm still not sure why you're here." Blaine said, walking across his room and grabbing the three ties he'd set out.

"Because," Mel sighed. "Don't you want this to feel like a real date?"

"But that still doesn't explain you, here."

"Well, wouldn't it be weird going and picking Kurt up for your first real date in five years and I'm just sitting around on the couch watching reruns of Grey's Anatomy?"

"You'd be watching Friends or Scrubs before Grey's Anatomy. You hate that show."

"I do." She said. "But I've found myself up late a couple of nights in a row and it's the only thing on that's not a documentary or porn disguised as a foreign film and… McDreamy _is_ pretty dreamy."

"Really? I was always more into McSteamy."

"Ok, way off track." She grabbed the purple tie from his hands and held it out. "This one, purple brings out your eyes."

"Are you sure?"

"Very. But anyway… the point is, you don't want _me_ around when you're picking up Kurt."

"You could have hidden in your bedroom." He headed back to the bathroom and she followed, standing in the open doorway as he put the tie on.

"You and I both know I wouldn't be able to control myself. No!" Blaine had reached for a bottle of hair gel and she snatched it off him quickly, slapping his hand in the process. "No gel."

"But…" He ran fingers through his hair. "It's a _mess_ Mel! I can't go on a date with Kurt looking like this when he looks so… so…"

"So much like a porcelain doll? Ok, here, let me." She put a small amount of gel in her hands and rubbed it gently through his curls. It was just enough to tame them, and keep the frizz down, but his hair wasn't plastered to his head. "See, you look fine. Which jacket are you wearing?"

"The one on the bed."

"Uh," Mel bit her lip at the navy jacket.

"What? What's wrong with it?"

"Go with black."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure. Go with black."

Blaine pulled another jacket from his wardrobe. He shrugged his arms through it, letting it settle over the white detailed shirt he was wearing. He turned to the mirror in his room and started fixing up the sleeves and readjusting his tie.

"Blaine." Mel stood behind him, both hands on his shoulders and stood on the balls of her feet to be level with him. "You look fine."

He raised an eyebrow.

"Better than fine." She corrected. "You look hot."

"Really?"

"Oh yeah." She smoothed down the shoulders of his jacket for a moment before letting go and stepping back from him. "Kurt is a lucky guy."

Blaine shook his head. "No, I'm the lucky guy."

"Oh for God's sake, you're going to make me throw up."

"Ah, come on Mel, you love it."

"No." She shook her head. "I really don't."

"So… what are you doing tonight anyway?" He asked.

She shrugged. "After a little while I'll head back to mine. Leave this place empty." She winked at him. "And… chill, I suppose. Perv on McSteamy a little more."

"That's a pathetic Saturday night."

"Sorry, not all of us are able to get hot dates."

Blaine grinned.

"Now go. Don't leave Kurt waiting. He told me not to tell you, but… he was a bit of a nervous wreck when I was leaving."

"Why?" Blaine looked alarmed.

Mel laughed. "Because he's going on a date with _you_, you dumbass."

"Right." He adjusted his tie one more time.

"It's fine Blaine. Go. Have fun… and as much of it as you want." She leant up and kissed him on the cheek before he grabbed his keys and wallet and shoved them in his pocket. "I'll talk to you tomorrow."

"Yeah, ok. Oh, and Mel," he stopped.

"Yeah?"

"Thank you. For everything."

**x x x**

Blaine couldn't remember ever being so nervous. He kept repeating to himself _'it's just Kurt. It's _just_ Kurt'_ but no matter how hard he tried to convince himself he knew he couldn't. Because it wasn't _just_ Kurt, it would never be _just _Kurt. It was Kurt Hummel. The boy he'd met at seventeen, and even then he'd known it wasn't just a teenage crush. It was more than that. There weren't words for how he felt about Kurt. There weren't words for what they had.

He knew because he'd tried. Somewhere in his room was a notebook of half filled pages, words crossed out all over the place because he'd never been able to find the right ones. They didn't exist. And if they did, he had yet to find them.

The cab pulled up to Kurt's (well, Mel's technically) building. He told the driver to keep the meter ticking and he wouldn't be long.

In the elevator he took a few deep breaths, and tried to steady his pounding heart. It didn't work. He hadn't expected it to though.

He slowly approached the apartment. Each step was a little more intimidating than the last.

"Ok, Blaine, you can do this," he muttered to himself, then knocked on the door. He could hear something from inside the apartment and thought he could hear a faint voice call out "coming!".

This would be fine; he could do this. He'd gone on a million dates with Kurt before, this was jut another... and holy hell those were _tight _pants.

The door had swung open and Blaine's brain promptly faltered, and stopped functioning all together. His eyes raked Kurt's body, and he was most definitely leering in a way that was not at all socially acceptable, but what was to be expected of him when Kurt was wearing _that_?

Kurt was dressed in really, really tight black jeans that looked like they'd been painted on (really though, how long did it take him just to put them on?) and a bright red, long sleeve, wool knit sweater over a plain white collared shirt. His hair wasn't in its usual perfectly coiffed style, but instead looked like it had been done to make it seem as though he'd run his hands through it a few times, a couple of stray strands falling casually over his forehead (though, they without a doubt were meticulously placed there). Blaine couldn't help but wonder if Kurt had intentionally done it because he knew it was his favourite look on him.

When Blaine finally met Kurt's eyes he realised just how much he'd been staring and cleared his throat.

"You uh... you look good," what he really wanted to say was _'let's forget this party and skip ahead to the part where there significantly less clothing and a bed, or even just a wall will do, I'm not too fussy right now, as long as there's you, and your skin, and your mouth...'_but that would probably fall under really, really inappropriate.

"Thanks." Kurt's face lit up with a smile that suddenly made him look years younger. "You look good too."

"Right, so uh... shall we go then?"

Kurt nodded.

As they walked back to the elevator, Blaine put his arm around Kurt's waist and pulled him closer, just because this was a date, and he could. And it was something he'd really missed. Kurt let out the smallest, cutest, gasp at suddenly being pressed up against Blaine's side, but didn't protest. That gasp, was probably one of the most amazing sounds Blaine had ever heard.

The cab ride to the party was mostly quiet.

"When we get there, I'm going to have to do a bit of stuff for work, talk to some people and all that," Blaine said. "I won't just abandon you though, I just thought you should know so you dot think I'm rude dragging you around the room talking to random people."

"I expected as much," Kurt said. "And it's fine if you just want to... drop me off at the bar or something." He trailed off a little at the end, staring intensely at his hands.

"And leave you for some other guy to hit on you?" Blaine scoffed. "No way."

Kurt smiled at him.

"Besides I _want _to introduce you to the people I work with. They'll be relieved."

"Relieved?"

"They never say it directly, but the number of times they'd be talking about someone they know and slip in a 'he's single you know?' into the conversation was enough to drive me crazy."

"It's nice that they care about you so much." Kurt said.

"I suppose. But at least now they'll see I'm not completely incompetent and am actually able to get a date myself."

"Oh, I see," Kurt said, with a sparkle in his eye. "This isn't about you and me at all. This is all just to get your colleagues to stop trying to set you up."

"Yeah, you caught me."

"It's ok," Kurt, in a moment of daring leaned over and whispered in Blaine's ear. "I'll make you forget all about them."

Blaine could barely suppress the shudder that ran down his spine as Kurt's hot breath tickled his ear.

"That's," his voice came out suddenly several pitches higher, and strained, he coughed. "That's good to know."

Kurt smirked in a way Blaine hadn't even known he could, it was self-satisfaction, with a hint of wickedness, and Blaine wondered if it was something he'd learnt over the years. He… kind of really didn't mind this side of Kurt.

They pulled up to the venue and Blaine quickly handed the fare amount to the driver.

"Wait, let me at least pay for half." Kurt insisted, reaching for his wallet.

"No. I'm taking _you_out, that means I pay."

"But-

"No." Blaine shook his head firmly.

Before they walked in, Blaine grabbed Kurt's hand, if the other man noticed how hot and clammy his hand was, he thankfully didn't mention it.

Inside, the lighting was dim; Blaine could see the stage was already set up for Tyler's performance, a short set later in the evening. Currently though dance music filled the room, though no one was actually dancing yet, just mingling. The bar was to the right, and looked fairly busy (probably because 'open bar' had been printed quite clearly on the invites), there were waiters and waitresses moving through the crowd with platters of finger food. Blaine managed to spot Tyler and started to weave his way through the crowd over to him, bringing Kurt along with him.

"Tyler!" he shouted over the music and voices.

The blonde man heard his name and spotted Blaine, his face lit up immediately.

"Blaine! Hey man, how's it going?"

Blaine had to drop Kurt's hand to accept Tyler's offered hug. As they pulled apart, Tyler's gaze fell on Kurt and he gave Blaine a knowing look, and a not so subtle wink that made Blain blush a little (and suddenly he was thankful the room wasn't very bright).

"Uh, Kurt, Tyler, Tyler, Kurt. I know you've met briefly before but uh... yeah." He finished lamely.

"Nice to meet you Kurt." Tyler had on his most charming smile and held his hand out.

Kurt shook it.

"Yeah, nice to meet you," he gave a forced smile. "I'm looking forward to hearing your music later."

"Oh really? Awesome. Let me know what you think too, I can sign a copy if you want; it's really no problem. I have to go and talk to more people, and have an interview soon, but uh... have good time yeah?" his eyes flickered between them, and he leant forward and whispered to them. "There are some empty rooms backstage if you want. Just say the word yeah?"

Blaine spluttered as Tyler walked off and Kurt's jaw was practically on the ground.

"Did he just..."

Blaine sighed.

"Yep. I wish I could say he was joking, but I don't think he was."

"What did you ever see in him?"

"A cute smile?"

"Right." Kurt said, but there was a hint of an amused smile on his face.

**x x x**

Mel had dressed up, she was wearing a black strappy dress, that was probably a little too short, but she had good legs and knew it so it was worth showing them off, and sheer black stocking, with black boots that reached mid-calf, her hair fell in lose curls down her back, and she'd gone for a smoky eye make up look. She'd normally dress a little more formally for work related events. But this was Tyler and... she kind of wanted him to drool over her a little. Or a lot. Whatever.

At the door, she gave the bouncer her name and the name of the magazine she was from. Suddenly a tall, blonde woman appeared.

"Hi, Melinda right? I'm Karen, public relations for SBA. We have a room set up for the interview, so if you'll just follow me."

Karen led her behind the stage, to what she assumed was the green room. As soon as they entered, Tyler stood up. When he actually realised it was her, his mouth fell open.

"Mel?" he asked.

"Uh... surprise?"

"Oh, you two know each other already? That's great. I'll leave you to it then."

"W-what? I thought you were busy."

"I was," she shrugged. "I have to interview this musician and write up a review on his EP."

"But... ok, I'm kind of confused."

"Let's sit down shall we?" she offered, pulling out a tape recorder from her bag.

"Mel,"

"Look," she sighed. "I was telling the truth when I said I had something for work. I just, I didn't want our first date to be all about me interviewing you. I didn't tell you because... I don't know, I guess I wanted it to be a surprise, which now seems like it was a bad idea…"

"Colour me shocked then."

"Do you understand though?"

"I… guess I do," he said. "But I wish you'd just told me. Does Blaine know?"

"No. Oh, by the way, are they here?"

"Yep," he nodded. "They were holding hands and blushing at each other. It was kind of cute in a... vomit inducing way... why do you look disappointed."

"I was hoping they'd not quite make it… you know?"

"Oh," Tyler chuckled. "I offered them one of the dressing rooms."

"Oh my god! What did they say?"

"They were kind of speechless."

"Honestly, I would have paid to see how red Kurt's face got. He's honestly such a blushing virgin sometimes. It's too cute."

"It went pretty red." Tyler said, and Mel giggled at the image of his reaction her mind conjured up.

"Ok, let's get this interview over with." Mel said. "Then we can actually do something more interesting."

"Are you going to be nice to me in your article?"

"Maybe," she smirked. "It depends."

"On what?"

"If I tell you, you'll cheat."  
**  
****x x x**

After talking to just about every person from the office (and Blaine would admit, that thrill of saying 'This is my date, Kurt.' didn't ever wear off, and once or twice he may have let his mind wander off to imagining what it would be like to say 'This is my _boyfriend_, Kurt') Blaine and Kurt finally found themselves sitting at one of the tables, each with a glass of red wine. Their knees were just touching as they were forced to lean in close to be able to talk to each other.

Kurt was talking about Rachel's wedding plans, but Blaine was too distracted with the way Kurt keep flicking a piece of hair out of his eyes, it was stubborn and kept falling back.

Blaine laughed.

"Here," he reached out and pushed the piece of hair back in it's place. Kurt froze and was stared at him. Blaine realised what he'd done and blushed. "Sorry, I know you don't like people touching your hair," his hand hadn't left Kurt's face, but had slipped down and was cupping his cheek. He wasn't sure what he was doing anymore. The more logical part of his brain was screaming at him to move his hand, but the part that had decided to take control was too busy revelling in the fact that he was touching Kurt, and how soft his skin was, and that he could feel Kurt's cheek warming a little in a blush to listen.

"I don't mind so much when it's you."

Blaine almost didn't hear what Kurt said, he spoke so softly.

"Really?" he hoped the way his voice was shaking a little wasn't obvious.

"Really."

Blaine stroked along Kurt's cheekbone with his thumb. His skin was just so soft.

"Still moisturise at night?" he asked, feeling a little foolish. Of all things to blurt out, really?

"Of course." Kurt breathed out.

"Kurt, I..." he wasn't really aware of what he was doing anymore, all he knew was that Kurt had just licked his lips and suddenly Blaine couldn't take his eyes off them. The rest of the room seemed to disappear until it was just the two of them. He leant forward, and when Kurt followed the movement, leaning in slightly as well, he was encouraged. His lips ghosted over Kurt's in a feather light touch. Kurt sighed and his breath tickled Blaine's lips. The hand that had now slipped down to the base of Kurt's neck tightened slightly, pulling him a fraction closer, and he didn't seem to be protesting at all.

"Alright, hey everyone! How are you tonight?"

The room suddenly hushed and Blaine jerked back in shock.

"Oh." he heard a breathy sigh from Kurt next to him and Blaine may or may not have slammed his palm on the table, a little harder than he meant to, _perfect_timing, Tyler… he thought sarcastically. But, he turned his attention to the stage where Tyler sat on a stool, with a guitar in his arms.

"So uh, I'm Tyler, and thank you for coming tonight. It means a lot to me. Even if some of you are paid to be here," he looked to someone Blaine couldn't see, standing to the right of the stage. Tyler smirked at whoever it was. "Anyway, I'm was hoping you'd like to actually hear some of the songs, so you can go home and tell your friends and family about this amazing musician you heard called Tyler Blake and that they should buy his EP, on iTunes," he gave a bit of a nervous laugh. "Um, so this song is called Gravity, because I think it's a rule for every musician to have a song called Gravity. It's about um, well, being in love with someone who's in love with someone else."

He started picking out the intro. As soon as he started singing the first verse it was clear the audience was captivated.

"He's much better than I thought he would be." Kurt leant over to whisper to Blaine.

Blaine nodded, trying not to be distracted by how close Kurt was. Seriously, what was he? Eighteen all over again?

"Do you miss it?"

"Miss what?"

"Performing, the stage, singing?"

Blaine shrugged.

"Sometimes," he admitted. "But, I love this just as much," he gestured to the stage. "Helping bring out someone's potential, and watching them grow as an artist, helping them make their music. It's just as fulfilling, most of the time."

"You're really big on helping people aren't you?"

Blaine turned to meet Kurt's eyes. He nodded.

"Sometimes I just can't help it, especially when they need it. Do you want to move closer to the front?"

"Yeah, ok."

Blaine unnecessarily grabbed Kurt's hand and led him through the crowd. As they got to the front of the stage Tyler saw him and gave him a smile. Blaine nodded back and gave him a thumbs up, to say he was proud of him. He'd come such a long way from the arrogant boy he'd first met properly in a small Italian restaurant.

As he finished the song there was loud applause.

"Thank you. Uh, this next song is a little angrier," he started strumming out loud chords and Blaine flushed a little as he remembered the circumstances around the song All Wrong and how uncomfortable being in the studio for that one had been.

He played through the rest of the songs on the EP, and Blaine couldn't help but feel proud. As he came to the end of the set, Tyler spoke again.

"So, this last song isn't on Speechless, my EP in case you missed that. Uh... it's called Tonight and it's about this girl, that I met and uh... she's really something else, and I guess, this song is everything I've so far been too afraid to tell her," his gaze was focused firmly on someone to the right of the stage again, this time, as Blaine followed where he was looking he saw just who he was looking at. Mel stood there, looking beautiful (though she always did) her mouth open slightly in shock. Blaine was just as shocked. He thought she had something on for work, why was she here?

Tyler started strumming soft chords on the guitar.

"_Oh, she's got these beautiful eyes, that the first time, took me by surprise_."

Blaine watched, as Mel's expression changed from shocked to completely smitten in about three seconds and couldn't help a bit of a roll of his eyes. Of course, no girl was able to resist a guy that would write her a song. Not even Mel, who would to be tough, and say that she wasn't into romance because it was 'lame'.

"_And I can't believe I got so lucky, to be seen with you, tonight_." Tyler never once took his eyes off Mel.

Kurt suddenly gasped and grabbed Blaine's arm.

"Oh my God, Blaine, that's Mel he's looking at! He's singing to her. He's singing to Mel. Oh that's the sweetest thing ever, it's so romantic." He sighed.

Blaine looked at Kurt in wonder, and on an impulse, kissed him on the cheek.

"Kurt, please don't ever change."

Kurt flushed bright red.

"Ok..."

Tyler finished with a comment about buying the EP and went off the stage, dance music started again and people dispersed, a couple of girls took to the floor the started dancing, others went to the bar, most just broke out into a conversation with the people around them. Blaine grabbed Kurt (still giddy that tonight, he could) and they both walked over to Mel.

"Melinda Valdez, just how do you explain yourself?" he asked. "I thought you were spending the night with Meredith Grey and co.?"

She grinned.

"Nope. Though, this isn't all just pleasure, it's work as well. I'm writing an article, and Tyler is part of it. Isn't this the best night ever?" she giggled.

"Yes!" Kurt was almost vibrating with excitement. "How long have you guys been dating and why didn't I know about it? I live with you, you've never even mentioned him."

"Oh yeah, about that, mind keeping my place empty tonight... just in case... you know…"

"Blaine?" Kurt asked.

"Oh, yeah sure... you can stay at mine, if you, uh, want," he didn't miss the mischievous glint in Mel's eyes (even if Kurt had), and would berate her about her thinly veiled plan later.

"Oh, but we're not dating, yet. We went out once sort of, accidentally. And, we're going on an actual date next Friday night. I really like him." she gave Blaine a steady glare.

"Look, Mel, I'm not going to stand in your way, you're an adult and can make your own decisions, and I'll always, _always_be there for you. But I still think you should be careful. Don't rush into anything, please."

"Blaine, I'll be fine, he's really a sweet guy you know? You two just clashed too much to date. Not to mention the timing was horrible for both of you."

"Yeah, ok. It just... feels like I'm losing you a little bit."

"Aw, Blaine, you'll never lose me. In fact, you're stuck with me for life, both of you." in rare affection she suddenly embraced Blaine in a tight hug, squeezing him around the waist for moment before letting go and doing the same to Kurt. "I love you guys. Now you crazy kids go and have fun. And lots of it," she winked. "I'm going to find Tyler."

She left them both, blushing insanely and not quite making eye contact.

**x x x**

They hadn't ended up staying right until the end of the party. In fact, they left around midnight. The trip back to Blaine's apartment was quiet. Blaine couldn't quite work out why his hands were shaking _so much_ as he unlocked the door and let them both in. He focused on putting his keys and wallet on the kitchen bench before turning to Kurt who was standing unsurely just by the door.

"So, uh…" he gave a nervous laugh. "Make yourself comfortable, I guess. Do you want, anything?"

Kurt opened his mouth to say something, but thought better of it and stopped and just shook his head instead.

"Ok, well…" he glanced around the apartment. "Do you want a drink? Or something to eat or… anything?"

"I'm fine Blaine." Kurt said, he moved from his spot by the door until he was standing in front of Blaine. "Please don't be nervous, it's just me."

Blaine shook his head.

"It's never _just_ you."

Kurt tilted his head questioningly.

"It's never been _just_ you. Ever. I feel like, I could spend a lifetime with you, and even then just being in the same room as you would still make my heart beat faster," he let out a short laugh. "That probably sounds so stupid."

"Blaine." Kurt breathed, "It's not stupid at all."

Kurt moved even closer so they were almost touching. Up this close, Blaine could see all the colours in Kurt's eyes. Blue, green and grey all swirling together, in such an expression of emotion. Only, right now, he couldn't pinpoint what that emotion actually was. But he _could_ see desire in there. He was sure he wasn't misreading that.

There was no initiator. It just happened. Their lips touched, tentatively at first, and when they each realised the other wasn't about to pull away the kiss deepened. They could both taste red wine and salmon puffs. It was long and slow as they both just savoured the feeling of each other and finally they moved apart. Breathing heavily, still clutching at each other.

"That was…" Blaine struggled to get his brain working again.

"Wow."

"Yeah, wow."

Kurt wrapped his arms around Blaine's waist tightly and leant his chin on his shoulder. Blaine in turn wrapped his arms around Kurt's shoulders and they just stood there, embracing each other.

"I love you." Blaine whispered so softly he wasn't even sure he'd really said it.

Kurt didn't respond. He wanted to. But he wasn't sure if he'd imagined Blaine saying that and he'd rather imagine that he did than find out he hadn't. Then he yawned.

Blaine laughed; the vibrations of it went right through Kurt.

"Maybe we should get some sleep."

"Yeah," Kurt reluctantly let go of Blaine. But it wasn't for long. Kurt ended up borrowing a pair of track pants, and a shirt from Blaine to sleep in, and they both ended up in his bed, holding each other again. Each afraid they'd wake up and find the other not there, and that the entire night had just been a dream.


End file.
